Traditional medicine should be more scientific - Addo-Kufour

Accra (Greater Accra) 26 Nov ’99

Dr. Kwame Addo-Kufour, Minority spokesman on Health, on Thursday expressed the need to put traditional medicine on a more scientific basis to enhance its role in health care delivery.

He noted that the importance of traditional medicine in the Ghanaian society cannot be over-emphasised and said it is widely accepted that health for all by any years will not be possible without the full participation of the traditional practitioners in the medium to long-term.

"There is, therefore, the need to give traditional medicine practitioners the scientific orientation to enhance their practice to complement substantially orthodox medicine to enable the country to achieve health for all by whatever years".

Dr. Addo-Kufour was contributing to a debate on a motion for a second reading of the traditional medicine practice bill.

He suggested that the Centre for Scientific Research into Plant Medicine be expanded and upgraded to serve as a form of medical school for the training of traditional medicine practitioners.

Dr. Moses Adibo, Deputy Minister of Health, had moved a motion for a second reading of the bill, which seeks to establish a council to regulate the practice of traditional medicine.

The bill also seeks to license premises for the practice of traditional medicine and to regulate the preparation and sale of herbal medicines.

Dr. Addo-Kufour said the centre should be given the necessary resources and the human capacity, both orthodox and traditional, to act as a bridge and a meeting point between traditional medical and orthodox practice.

He suggested that effective legal mechanisms should be put in place to ensure the secrecy of herbalists over the protection of their intellectual property rights.

The Minority Ranking member noted that the bill is silent on areas of possible collaboration between the traditional and orthodox systems.

He said since the same Ghanaian patients patronise both systems, a certain degree of collaboration is not only desirable but also inevitable and, therefore, mechanisms should be evolved to make such collaboration effective and harmonious.

Dr. Adibo told the house that the need for the bill stems from the realisation that in Ghana there is one traditional practitioner to approximately 400 people as compared to one orthodox doctor to every 2,000 Ghanaians.

He said this great disparity in figures emphasises the widespread patronage of traditional medicine in the country, which necessitates its practice being legally recognised, accepted and promoted to exist as a separate identified profession.

Dr. Adibo noted that in countries as diverse as China, Mexico, Thailand, Mauritius and Zimbabwe, traditional medicine already forms an integral part of the health care delivery system.

He said traditional remedies are prescribed in public health institutions, adding that in many other developing countries the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that traditional medicine caters for 40 to 90 per cent of the health care needs of the population.

The Deputy Minister said successive governments of Ghana have recognised the importance of herbal medicinal practice and explained that the bill intends to take the efforts of previous governments a step further by establishing a council to regulate and oversee the practitioners of herbal medicine and their practice

He said the membership of the council comprises five nominees to be appointed from recognised associations of traditional healers from whom the chairman of the council is appointed.

Other members are the Director of the Traditional Medicine Services Division of the Ministry of Health, the Director of the Centre for Scientific Research into Plant Medicine and the Chief Executive of the Food and Drug Board.

GRi../