Recognizing the importance of health and well-being, Ghana Post is a longstanding champion and a source of best practices in the provision of both treatment and preventive healthcare services to its employees and beyond.
In line with the Post’s policy, the company pays the registration cost with the national health insurance scheme for its employees and their families and reimburses them for any additional charges outside the scope of their insurance coverage.For over two decades, Ghana Post has run its in-house medical facility, the Ghana Post Clinic, located at the headquarters of the postal operator in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. The Ghana Post Clinic provides health services for about 50% of employees and their families residing in the capital city of Ghana, Accra.
The availability of in-house healthcare services ensures that employees with medical ailments are seen promptly by a medical team and can return to work, allowing them to avoid long waiting time that they might otherwise face in public health facilities.
The Ghana Post Clinic is also open to retired employees and broader community members and serves as a primary outpatient clinic for them, with a resident medical doctor, nurses, and other health professionals, employed by Ghana Post. Services provided include general practice consultation, laboratory services, administration of medicines and dispensary services, management of injuries, wound care, and basic emergency services.
In 2021, 7,596 visits were recorded at the Ghana Post Clinic, out of which 3,258 were by employees and their families, and the remaining 4,338 were by other community members.
In Ghana Post, we believe that prevention is key to ensuring a healthy workforce. Therefore, in 2015, the Post intensified the promotion of preventive healthcare among its employees. In 2017, under the “Prevention is Better than Cure” programme, Ghana Post, with support from the German Corporation for International Cooperation, GIZ, and other partners, set up a Preventive Health Centre at the Post’s headquarters.
Since its establishment, the Preventive Health Centre has been providing Ghana Post employees with comprehensive health screening for non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes, hypertension, abnormal cholesterol levels, obesity, chronic liver diseases, kidney diseases, and cancers.
In addition to Accra residents, the Centre’s medical team under my leadership provides intermittent health screening for community members and employees in other regions outside the capital, due to the availability of health screening devices and a well-equipped medical laboratory. Employees can also walk into the health facility to have a medical check-up at any time.
On the occasion of World Post Day 2017, as part of the Ghana Post Clinic's objective to ensure the provision of essential health services to the most vulnerable, the medical team organized a free health screening for the residents of James Town, an adjoining community in Accra.
Each October, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, our medical team provides free breast cancer screening for female employees, with support from the local health directorate of the Ghana Health Service. Free screenings and medical help are also provided to those with refractive errors of the eyes to enable them to work without challenges. From 2021 until March 2022, over 220 of Post’s employees have been provided with eyeglasses.
During the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ghana Post health team was at the forefront of COVID-19 prevention activities, providing health education, promoting compliance with safety protocols, providing guidance and support to employees, and conducting COVID-19 antigen tests. With the strategic location of the Ghana Post Clinic at the heart of the business district of Accra, Ghana Post offered its health premises to the national Ghana Health Service to offer COVID vaccines to the community. This also provided an opportunity for employees and retirees of Ghana Post to be vaccinated without leaving their workplace.
In the coming years, Ghana Post intends to further expand its healthcare facilities and increase the range and quality of health services provided to its employees, their families and members of the community. With this commitment, Ghana Post makes its own contribution to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal 3 on healthy lives and well-being for all at all ages.
Dr Kwaku Dwuma-Badu
Head of Medical Unit
Ghana Post Company Limited