Monrovia – The Liberia Medical and Dental Association says it will shortly embark on a quarterly medical outreach in rural communities as a means of improving the healthcare delivery system outside the capital.
Report by Willie N. Tokpah, [email protected]
The plan comes as a result of several complaints from rural communities about poor healthcare delivery services, according to LMDA Secretary-General Dr. Yuah A. Nemah.
Dr. Nemah told FrontPageAfrica over the weekend in Monrovia that these “hard-to-reach areas” have limited access to medical care and complicated cases are sometimes difficult to handle.
“The LMDA aims to ensure that people, especially those living in the isolated or rural parts of the country and people who have very limited access to medical care in Liberia receive the needed medical care and supports in rural areas as well as establishing the necessary mechanism by which collaborations for the regular supply of supplementary services will be established,” Dr. Nemah said.
He said the medical outreach will also help those providing medical services in rural Liberia to establish the necessary mechanism for supplementary services.
LMDA is the national body of all doctors and dentists practicing in the country and aims is to promote and maintain high standards of professional practice, ethics, dignity, and morals of medical doctors and dentist.
The group also seeks to promote research and improvements in the health care delivery system.
LMDA boss added that the outreach will also include the transfer of new and updated medical knowledge and skills to medical practitioners working in rural communities.
“It is very essential that healthcare professionals receive new and updated medical exposure to treat new cases. These are skills which those professionals in these rural areas in Liberia do not have and it is our plan to impact those new skills to them,’’ said Dr. Nemah.
Meanwhile, LMDA has revealed plans to begin publishing a bi-annual medical scientific journal on Liberia.
Dr. Nemah said the production of the Medical Journal will inform the world on the work of the country’s medical community, documenting medical scientifically.
Nemah lauded the government for providing foreign scholarships to some medical doctors who are currently obtaining specialized training.
According to him, LMDA intends to raise fund to send additional doctors to specialize in Dentistry, Ophthalmology, Pediatrics Anesthesiology, Cardiology, Nephrology and Oncology.
“When we have these kinds of trained doctors, we will not need to fly people seeking medical attention to other neighboring countries for needed medical treatments,” he said while calling on the public to support their endeavor.
At the same time, the association is preparing to induct its new corps of officers on February 15, 2019, to steer the affairs of the institution for a period of two years.
The officers include Dr. Emmanuel K. Ekyinabah, President, Dr. Abraham Jawara vice President, Dr. Yuah Nemah Secretary, Dr. Odell W. Kumeh Financial Secretary and Dr. Augustus G. Quiah as Chaplains.
The induction ceremony is expected to be held at the Golden Key Hotel in Paynesville and will be followed by a capacity building fundraising dinner intended to implement various programs for the next two years.