![Nana Abena Owusu Omenyo (left) inducting the new executive into office Nana Abena Owusu Omenyo (left) inducting the new executive into office](https://www.graphic.com.gh/images/2025/feb/11/Association.jpg)
We need audiology, speech, language therapy equipment in health facilities - Association appeals
The Speech Therapists and Audiologists Association of Ghana (STAAG) has inducted its executive members into office with an appeal for audiology, speech and language therapy facilities and equipment in all healthcare facilities in the country.
The association asserted that the provision of those facilities and equipment would enhance the delivery of quality services at all levels of health care within the Ghana Health Service.
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Delivering his inaugural address, the President of STAAG, Major Emmanuel Deladem Nkornoo, said the provision of facilities and equipment would not only enhance service delivery but also create jobs for qualified professionals.
He said such professionals would provide essential services such as newborn hearing assessment, vestibular assessment and rehabilitation, autism evaluation and management, as well as speech-language assessment and speech delays, among others.
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Commitment
He expressed concern that some of those professionals who were currently unemployed had been home since they graduated in 2020.
Major Nkornoo indicated STAAG's readiness to dialogue with industry stakeholders and partners to help the government through the Ministry of Health (MoH) and the GHS in providing infrastructure and equipment for the setting up of audiological and speech and language therapy practice centres across the country.
He also appealed for tax waivers on the importation of hearing aids to help the average Ghanaian to afford them, stressing that "the average cost of hearing aids in Ghana ranges from GH¢8,000 to Gh¢40,000.”
Major Nkornoo further called for consultation in areas of audiology, speech and language therapy and pledged the association's commitment to helping the government realise its plans of setting up the Postgraduate College of Allied Health that would facilitate the specialisation of Allied Health Professionals.
"STAAG, together with the Ghana Federation of Allied Health Professionals, will continue to pursue this till its realisation," he said.
Provide statistics
In his remarks, a Deputy Human Resource Manager at the MoH, Lawrence Odartey Lawson, urged the executives to provide statistics available to them to aid the decision-making process.
He expressed hope that the government would turn things around for financial clearance for recruitment to fill up the professional gap within the health sector.
Induction
Inducting the seven-member executives into office, a magistrate at the Kaneshie District Court, Nana Abena Asoh Owusu-Omenyo, admonished them to uphold the tenets of the profession and abide by the rules governing the association.
The other executives are Emma Adelaide Yirenkyi, Vice President; Catherine Hammond, General Secretary; Fionuala Akua Abrafi Ammah, Assistant Secretary; Deborah Naa Ayerkor Lamptey, Financial Secretary; Aklika Francis Kwami, Organising Secretary, and Desmond Lamptey, Public Relations Officer.