Salome Naa Amerley Amartey
My name is Salome Naa Amerley Amartey, a pharmacist born and trained in Ghana. During the COVID 19 pandemic, I got the opportunity to work with Zipline, a medical logistics company who had partnered with the Ministry of Health in Ghana to deliver essential medical products, blood and vaccines to remote rural areas in Ghana using drones. This meant having to go outside of my comfort zone to relocate to the small village of Walewale where the Distribution Centre had been set up.
Health goes beyond individuals and facilities
Working in Northern Ghana helped me understand that health goes beyond individuals and facilities. Cultural differences, politics and technology all play a role when big the gap that existed between the rich and poor was when it came to access and quality of health care.
“ My holistic education will put me in a better position to work with governments to make data driven decisions concerning health policies and how healthcare access can be made more equitable ”
Ghana’s healthcare system has made progress over the past few decades with the introduction of the National Insurance Scheme and the increase in primary care facilities in all districts in Ghana. A gap however exists in the healthcare system where factors like bad roads, lack of skilled human resource and logistics prevent essential medical products from moving down the supply chain. This particularly affects disadvantaged and vulnerable groups such as women, children, people living with disabilities and the elderly. So what we see is that the local people go to the hospital but there are no medicines to access using their Health Insurance. This makes people lose confidence in the healthcare system, leading to less attendance and higher health complications.
With the education I will receive from KIT I hope to be able to exchange ideas with other healthcare professionals in order to gain insights into what strides they are making and how we can learn from that I believe my holistic education will put me in a better position to work with governments to make data driven decisions concerning health policies and how healthcare access can be made more equitable. I am grateful to KIT Scholarship Fund and its donors for this opportunity.