At least ten hernia patients undergo surgery at every month at Nkawie-Toase Government Hospital in Ashanti Region.

The high prevalence rate of the disease in the predominantly farming area is attributed to strenuous farm work.

Over 30 hernia patients, five of them children, were operated upon during a medical outreach by Society of Family Physicians of Ghana (SOFPOG).

Medical Superintendent at the Nkawie-Toase Government Hospital, Dr Eric Kwame Detoh, said the recovery rate is however high.

“It’s common because it’s a farming community and the work they do expose them to the condition,” he noted.

A member of the surgical team, Dr Osei Frimpong, advised mothers to be vigilant and report the condition in children for early attention.

Society of Family Physicians of Ghana says inadequate funding for training of practitioners has long term implication for healthcare delivery.

Organizer, Dr Fred Bedzrah, says more doctors are needed in the field to ensure universal healthcare coverage.

He says an increased number, especially of physicians, will narrow the widening doctor-patient ratio gap.

“We always complain of the doctor-patient ratio which is very huge so if you have that doctor who has a special skill to take care of patients irrespective of their conditions then that will be important in increasing access to health care in this country.”

Dr Bedzrah was speaking on the occasion of 20 years of family medical practice in Ghana.

The government introduced modular programmes for training family medical practitioner for district hospitals.

Dr Bedzrah, however, suggests prevailing conditions do not encourage many doctors to specialise.

“Till date, the very first fellow from the government college of physicians just completed in 2017 so it took us over 12 years to train our first fellow then you know there’s more room for improvement, ” he bemoaned.

“Now that we have a lot of family medicine residents manning our district hospitals, let’s keep funding the modular programmes and we’ll get more family physicians in our hospitals,” he added.

The society undertook free screening and treatment for residents of Nkawie and Toase in Atwima Nwabiagya District.

A member of the surgical team, Dr Osei Frimpong, advised mothers to be vigilant and report the condition in children for early attention.

A debating contest to mark the anniversary saw Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology emerge tops.

Garden City University College, Christ Apostolic University College and the University of Education, Winneba, Kumasi, were other contestants.

The topic was,” After 62 years of independence, Ghana is Close to Achieving Universal Health Coverage.”