Story from Isaac Akwetey-Okunor
Some workers working on some of the medicines
Dr. Emmanuel Apem Darko, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Kwayisi Christian Herbal Clinic, located at Ayisaa in the Suhum Municipality, has called for effective collaboration between alternative medicine and orthodox medicine practitioners.
According to him, people across the world are gradually shifting from using orthodox medications to alternative treatment because of the comparative advantage the latter has over the former.
The front view of the multi-purpose facility
He disclosed that the introduction of alternative health treatment cannot, and is not in challenge with the orthodox health treatment, rather as an alternative when all efforts to use orthodox methods fail.
To this end, practitioners in the orthodox sector should rather recognise alternative health practitioners as effective and efficient stakeholders, towards the provision of quality health care delivery.
He expressed his disappointment over the fact that some health practitioners in the orthodox bandwagon seek treatment in alternative health care facilities, yet they (orthodox practitioners) treat patients’ referred to their facilities with disrespect and contempt.
“We are appealing to our brothers in the orthodox health practice to see us as key stakeholders to health care, and stop treating our patients with contempt,” he appealed.
He further cried foul over the destruction of the forests, leading to destruction of medicinal plants, adding that “unregulated exploitation of the country’s bio-resources, environmental degradation, and deforestation, uncontrolled burning, and poor agriculture practices have been a major threat to the survival of medicinal plant species”.
He made the disclosure in his speech during the commission of the facility, which brought practitioners from both the alternative and orthodox sector together.
The herbal facility has two consulting rooms, two medical stores, records, massage theatre, two production rooms, dispensary, a large car park, and operates from Monday to Friday.
Taking the gathering through the need to welcome alternative treatment, Dr. Darko hinted that saving the country’s medicinal plant resources, vis-à-vis, promoting the use of plant medicines for the treatment of diseases, had come to stay.
“Alternative treatment and use of traditional medicine in providing primary health care should be appreciated, considering its economic as well as cultural preferences to the Ghanaian,” he declared.
He contended that traditional medicine remains the main source of health care for most rural populations, not only in Ghana, but Africa, hence the need for the government and other stakeholders in the sector to create an enabling environment for businesses to grow.
According to him, the use of medicinal plants for the treatment of diseases dates back to the 1960s, when his father, now deceased, Stephen Mintah Yenkyere, through a combination of instinct, observation, taste, and experience treated illnesses using plants.
Dr. Darko continued that his late father started from Asuoyaa, a farming community in Akropong in the Akuapem North Municipality, before moving to its present location, with little or no interest in establishing a clinic.
This is because he saw the practice of using medicinal plants to heal people as more devilish than alternative health care delivery, until he was advised by a Presbyterian Pastor to establish a facility, since even in the days of Jesus Christ, herbs were used for treatment of ailments, hence not idolism.
According to Dr. Darko, who has many certificates from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Logos Graduate School and other institutions on plant medicine, said he took over from the late father after graduating from the Takoradi Polytechnic in 2000 as a Quantity Surveyor.
He reiterated that despite working with the late Yenkyere for many years, and was well vested in plants identification and preparations, he started as a dispenser with his father from a wooden structure.
The Quantity Surveyor turned Doctor stressed that he was highly motivated to establish the new multi- purpose facility to provide quality alternative health treatment in honour of his father who died in 2013.
The facility has so far employed about 100 people directly and indirectly, as its contribution to the socio-economic development of the country.