The Queen of Denmark, Margrethe II, as part of her two-day official visit to Ghana, witnessed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the National Catholic Health Service (NCHS) and Novo Nordisk, in Accra. Also present was H.E the Vice President of Ghana, Dr. Alhaji Mahamoud Bawumia.
George A. Adjei Esq, Director of Health at the National Catholic Health Service, signed the MOU on behalf of the Service at a Ceremony held in Accra on 23rd November 2017.
The MOU seeks among other things to build capacity of health professionals within the National Catholic Service in diabetic care in the country as well as scale up a new strategy of School Health Intervention in diabetic care.
Novo Nordisk is a Danish Pharmaceutical company and the world’s largest producer of insulin. It established the BoP (Base of the Pyramid) project to identify innovative and sustainable solutions that support an integrated approach to diagnosis, treatment and control of diabetes for the working poor living at the base of the economic pyramid. The BoP is a socio-economic concept referring to the world’s poorest citizens, many of who have limited access to basic healthcare.
The BoP project has five components namely raising diabetes awareness, screening and diagnosis, training healthcare professionals, improving availability and affordability of insulin and educating people in diabetes self-management.
Since its initiation in 2010, the Bop project has been rolled out in Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria and India.As part of the “Ghana project”, Diabetes Support Centers were built at some NCHS facilities like the Holy Family Hospital, Nkawkaw, Our Lady of Grace, Breman Asikuma and Holy Family Hospital, Berekum between 2014/2015.