Ghana Federation of Traditional Medicine Practitioners (GHAFTRAM), is calling for a uniform referral system between traditional medicine practitioners and allopathic facilities across the country.

The General Secretary of the Association has said that the current system needs to be harmonized to smoothen the provision of quality health care.

Nana Kwadwo Obiri spoke to the media after the Association toured some facilities, including 21st Century clinic in the Ashanti region, to monitor the impact of Covid-19 on operations.

Mr Obiri noted that currently, there is no established referral system, which makes it difficult for some institutions to refer patients to allopathic health facilities. 

"A facility like this place (21st clinic), because they know a lot, they know how to write a referral to governments and I know they have links with them," said.

Mr Obiri advised owners of facilities to licence their staff under the Traditional Medicine Council to enable them to benefit from training programmes by GHAFTRAM. 

"They also liaise with the Food and Drug Authority to register all their products where applicable,"

He urged the public to have confidence in traditional medicine and assured Ghanaians of access to the best traditional medicine. 

GHAFTRAM also wants the government to extend its Covid-19 support to herbal clinics in the country.

Mr. Obiri told JoyNews that the outbreak of the disease is seriously affecting the operations of the clinics of their members.

He appealed to the government to come to the aid of the traditional medicine practitioners since they provide quality healthcare delivery to a significant number of the public.

GHAFTRAM is also worried that traditional medicine is not included on the list of approved medications on the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).

According to the Association, the health Ministry's failure to list traditional medicine under NHIS has a great burden on patients. 

He says patients pay huge sums of money when they patronize their facilities to seek medical attention.

“Health Ministry has accredited traditional medicine practitioners as service providers of the NHIS, but our medicines are yet to be added the list, thus, we appeal to the Ministry to do so to improve the healthcare delivery in the country,” Nana Obiri appealed.

The Ahwia branch Manager of 21st Clinic, Daniel Opoku Agyemang, observed patients, who are mostly the elderly, are unable to buy medicines for their ailments due to lack of money. 

Impact of Covid-19

After touring the 21st Clinic, Nana Kwadwo Obiri found out that the COVID-19 has had serious effects on the activities of the Clinic and pleaded with the government “to extend COVID-19 interventions to the traditional medicine practitioners so that they can come back to business.” 

The National Executives of GHAFTRAM highly commended the Management of 21st Clinic for adhering to COVID-19 safety protocols in their line of duty and scientifically administering their healthcare.