‘Encourage congregation to do medical checkup’

The Senior Physician Assistant of the Atua Government Hospital in the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality, Mrs Mercy Wilson, has advised church leaders to encourage their congregations to do periodic medical checkup to know their health status.

She said constant and periodic checkups would enable the individuals to identify any hidden illnesses for them to seek early treatment to avoid complications and save a higher cost of treatment in future.

Health screening

She gave the advice when she led a medical team from the Atua Government Hospital to screen members of the Somanya Ebenezer Congregation of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, as part of an annual health week programme of the church at Somanya.

The medical team from the Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT), Dental and Eye departments of the hospital, screened the members for Hepatitis B, blood sugar fasting blood sugar, body mass index (BMI) eye and ear, among other illnesses.

Mrs Wilson said dirty environment brought about illnesses, therefore, she said it was important for the public to always keep their environments clean.

As part of the health-screening exercise, members went on a seven-kilometre walk.

Health walk

The Second Minister in charge of the Ebenezer Congregation, Rev. Ebenezer Korletey, said the church was concerned about the health of its members and stressed the need for the congregation to carry out periodic health screening exercises to keep the members healthy.

He was, however, not happy about the general attendance of the youth, who, he said, should have rather embraced the exercise and expressed the hope that youth participation would improve in the subsequent ones.

The Chairman of the church’s Social Services Development Committee, Mr Emmanuel Amoah, said the health walk would be undertaken every month in order to keep the members of the church fit.