MEDISHOP EXPO slated for September

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Thursday August 19, 2010
THE SECOND International Medical and Pharmaceutical Exhibition, MEDISHOP EXPO 2010 to harness potential of the health sector for national development has been slated for September 23-25, 2010.

The three day event will be organized by the Society of Private Medical and Dental Practitioners Ghana in collaboration with Shem Pharma Services Limited under the auspices of the Ministry of Health (MOH). It has a general theme: “The emerging oil and gas wealth in Ghana: environmental and medical challenges to our communities.”

In an interview with DAILY GUIDE in Accra on Tuesday, Humphrey Tetteh, Chief Operating Officer of Shem Pharma Services said “it is our objective to ultimately provide the most comprehensive database of suppliers and manufacturers to the health care industry as well as specialist service providers in the sector both locally and globally.”

He said: “we want to help promote the provision of quality healthcare by facilitating information dissemination and working closely with consumer-oriented medical professionals such as the Society of Private Medical & Dental Practitioners of Ghana (SPMDP), Laboratory Technologists Associations, the Ministry of Health Ghana and other key players in the industry.”

He said the MEDISHOP EXPO is seeking to provide a platform for health practitioners in both the private and public sectors to exchange ideas in order to reduce the high incidence of medical errors in health care delivery.

Mr. Humphrey said the event will also expose exhibitors to what he called “huge potential market made up of the over 70 percent of Ghanaians who are enrolled with the National Health Insurance Scheme.”

He said “bringing medical suppliers, hospitals, other health institutions and health policy makers together to deliberate on how to position the country’s healthcare delivery system is the best thing that will happen to the country.”

He said the time had come for policy makers to accelerate efforts to make health care delivery electronically and technology based adding “the computing systems have not been fully utilized to facilitate healthcare delivery in the country.”

“Technology has come to change how hospital business and healthcare services are done. There is now the electronic medical record system. We must work hard to facilitate the implementation of such laudable systems so that the health sector will be strengthened.”

“People are getting to know that they have a right to basic healthcare. We are now in a global village and we do not have the luxury of repeating mistakes any longer. We must know that the wealth of any nation is measured by the health of its people”.
He said issues will be discussed in a frank and dispassionate manner to get the best for the country.”