As part of activities marking their Week Celebrations, the Physician Assistantship and Nursing students of the Presbyterian University College, Asante Akyem Agogo Campus have successfully ended a day medical outreach program.
About 520 people were screened and offered free First Aid as well as education on the importance of healthy living. Those with severe cases were referred to the Agogo Presbyterian Hospital for further examination.
Beneficiaries of the exercise were taken through hypertension, hepatitis B, malaria, diabetes, eye, body mass index, blood pressure, breast and dental screening.
The outreach programme which is held annually is aimed at providing free medical care and counseling for residents of deprived communities in the catchment area of the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences of the University situated at Asante Akyem Agogo.
The communities that benefited from this year’s programme were Dukusen and Ananekrom with a distance of about 12.5 and 7.5 km away from Agogo respectively.
The student leadership liaises with the chiefs and elders of the communities to mobilize the residents for the exercise.
Stephen Sabah Ofoe, President of the Physician Assistant Student Association of Ghana, PUC, noted that issues relating to health were one of the major challenges facing the communities. Hence, the need to periodically check the health status of the people.
Dukusen community does not have any health post and because transportation to this village is challenging, the residents trek about 5 km to Ananekrom before they can access a ‘CHIP compound’ health facility.
The Nursing students also embarked on blood donation exercise where about 100 pints of blood were donated to the Presbyterian Hospital at Asante Akyem Agogo.
Stephen Sabah Ofoe disclosed that to the students, the exercise is a good opportunity to give back to the society they come from, and also extend services to the less privileged people who are not directly benefiting from the national kitty.
The beneficiaries expressed their gratitude to the University for the kind gesture extended to the communities. They also described it as the first health screening exercise they had ever witnessed in the Dukusen Community.