IN THIS ISSUE:

1. Editorial

2. West African Rescue Blood Donation Day

3. WARA Ryan’s Irish Pub Drinks Event

4. WARA Opens A Clinic

5. Dr. Felix Joins WARA

6. Use of Emergency Hotlines

7. WARA Opens in Takoradi

8. Recent Health Concerns

EDITORIAL

Our organization has grown at an exceptional rate over the past year. As a result the name West African Rescue is fast becoming a household name amongst the entire community for health care management and emergency response.

As a direct result of this, our resources and our team have grown too, in order to meet the excellent standard of support required for our members. We have more medics on the ground and in addition we now have two General Practitioners; Dr Isaac Akanko our Medical Director, who joined WARA late last year and more recently, Dr. Felix Awindaogo, who we are very delighted to have as a member of our Medical Team.

In addition, we have increased our equipment resources and as such a fourth ambulance has been added to our fleet and a fifth one is being delivered soon.

Due to the arrival of the oil companies and their activities in the region, WARA has been asked to open a base in Takoradi, in the Western Region, and this is an additional asset to our organization. Read more about our recent activities in this newsletter and please feel free to forward your contributions or any feedback to newsletter@westafrican-rescue.com

West African Rescue Blood Donation Day - Saturday 4th October 2008

As our ambulance and rescue services is primarily an exclusive and private ambulance service, West African Rescue is always proud to develop and be involved in many different local initiatives which can help the general public in Ghana.

To this end, we have committed to do regular blood donations and our first one will be held at the Accra Mall on Saturday, the 4th of October 2008. Game has kindly committed to support this event by providing some refreshments and juice for those who decide to donate blood. All the blood collected will be donated to the National Blood Bank at Korle bu. We hope to receive a lot of support for this event and will kindly ask any of you who are interested to come and donate blood if you can. For those who have never donated blood and have no idea about the details of blood donation we would like to highlight some points which may be of interest.

Who Can Donate Blood?

• Any healthy individual between 17 and 60 years of age

• Donors can give blood up to three times a year

You Should Not Donate Blood if You:

• Are sick or suffering from an infection of any kind or have an unresolved wound or boil.

• Have been hospitalised in the past six months

• Have had body piercing, acupuncture or injection at an unsterile hospital in the past six months

• Are Pregnant, recently miscarried or given birth in the last six months

• Have had vaccinations in the past three weeks

• Have recently practised unsafe and high risk sexual activities

• Have taken antibiotics in the past week

• Have had a tooth extraction in the last three days.

Who Cannot Donate Blood Ever:

• Persons taking medications for heart disease or high blood pressure

• Homosexuals and prostitutes and drug addicts

• Those with liver disease, epilepsy, diabetes, hypertension, asthma, tuberculosis, psychiatric illness, sickle cell disease or stomach/duodenal ulcers

Where Does The Blood Go:

• The blood you donate will go to the national blood bank

• It will undergo a rigorous screening process and if it passes the screens it will be used for any person requiring blood

• It will be used for general surgery (23 %), general medical emergencies (15%), cardiothoracic surgery (11%), blood diseases (9%) and accidents and emergencies (8%), babies/renal patients and paediatrics (6%), intensive care units 4%, obstetrics and gynaecology 3.5%)

• The blood bank can stock blood for up to three months before it expires

• The blood bank is always in desperate need of stock so you are doing a very significant act by donating your blood to help others.

...in advance for donating blood!

People like you will make the difference between life and death for hundreds of patients in Ghana. We trust that you will support us to make this an annual affair.

Ryan’s Irish Pub Sponsored Drinks Evening
When: Friday 17th October 2008
Where: Ryan’s Irish Pub, Osu
Time: 7pm

For those of you who were here two years ago, you will remember the super event that we hosted at Ryan’s Pub. We had a great turn out and it functioned not only as super information exchange evening but also was an extremely successful social event. It provided an opportunity to share experiences and get to know our members and vice versa.

We look forward to host another drinks evening for all our members, their friends and associates on the 17th of October. Any other interested parties are welcome to join us for a drink, some snacks, and a presentation. It will give new members an opportunity to meet our whole team in person and in addition it will give us an opportunity to introduce our new Doctors. We will also have one of our new ambulances on display for the evening. We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible there.

A preview of the new ambulance to be

displayed at the sponsored drinks event

WARA Opens a Clinic:
As our needs have grown and with our team now including two General Practitioners, WARA decided to open a small health care clinic at our offices in Labone. Our GPs now offer consultancies here for members at a reduced price and for non members at a higher price. In addition we provide full pre employment and post employment medicals at this clinic. This is a very useful service for our corporate clients.

   WARA medical Officer, Dr. Felix Awindaogo and

 Paramedic Hardy Bauer at the newly opened clinic

Dr. Felix Joins The WARA Medical Team
Dr. Felix Razak Awindaogo has recently joined the WARA Medical Team as part of Management’s plan to further complement the work of our Paramedics.

In his capacity as our Medical Officer, he is working hand in hand with WARA Medical Director, Dr. Isaac Akanko.

Dr. Felix did his initial training at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, (KNUST), Medical School, with the following certificates to his credit; BSc Human Biology, MBch B and a Certificate in Injury Control and Prevention. .

Before joining WARA, he had been working at the 37 Military Hospital as a General Practitioner. Here he also did his Register Work, and had the opportunity to work in every single department. He finally opted to work with the Department of Internal Medicine when he was offered employment there after an impressive performance.

Growing up in a hospital environment, Dr. Felix’s greatest ambition all along, was to be a Medical Doctor. Thanks to his mother being a Nurse Midwife. He remembers feeling most comfortable whenever he visited his mother at work at the four Major Hospitals in the Northern and Upper Regions, as well as the Central University Hospital at Cape Cost.

WARA Opens in Takoradi
We are delighted to announce that we have recently opened offices in Takoradi, in the Western Region of Ghana.

Expanding our operations to this region has been motivated by the increasing oil company activities in the region. We now have permanent medical staff stationed in Takoradi with an ambulance on site with a full set of advanced life support, emergency rescue equipment.
Please note that this service is intended for companies and individuals based in Takoradi who want to extend their membership for the region. Kindly send your request to upgrade your coverage to: help@westafrican-rescue.com  or call 021 781258 for details.

Recent Health concerns:
Gastroenteritis
Over the past three months WARA has treated, rescued and admitted the highest number of gastro enteritis and general stomach upsets including food poisoning cases. We would like to encourage our members to take care in where they choose to eat. Roadside food, local chop bars and unprepared or unwashed salads and vegetables are always a high risk. Please be cautious when it comes to your food choices in this environment.

Malaria
This rainy season has increased our amount of malaria cases. We would like to remind all our members that having a net over their beds remains the safest and most effective way to prevent the contraction of malaria. The times when you travel away from your home remains your most risky time to expose yourself to contracting malaria. We recommend that you try and take a net with you to reduce your exposure to malaria.

The GBCA
Ghana Business Coalition Against HIV and AIDS:
The GBCA is a corporate body responsible for assisting all of us in becoming more prepared and well equipped to deal with HIV and AIDS both personally and in the workplace.

They hold regular and extremely informative forums, workshops and conferences which can provide corporate organizations with an arena to learn the latest information necessary, with regards to HIV statistics, policy and treatment. They are a wealth of information and resource for all of us working in an environment where we are expecting HIV and AIDS to become an increasing problem.

The GBAC are doing a remarkable job in combating the spread in HIV and AIDS in the workplace by encouraging appropriate workplace policy, strategies of treatment and prevention. We would like to encourage all our corporate clients in Ghana to look at becoming a member with the GBCA not only for the purpose of assisting in your corporate responsibility towards the growing concern of HIV and AIDS in Ghana, but also as a wealth of legal, medical and statistical support with regards to developing informed, responsible and effective HIV policy within your organizations.

For any further enquiries please feel free to contact the GBAC directly: www.gbcaweb.org
Dr Adrianna Ignea or Dr Derek Aryee at gbca-pd@4u.com.gh