The Chief Executive of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), Professor Otchere Addai-Mensah, has called for stringent enforcement of institutional policies to account and care for health professionals who are at higher risk of opioid medications misuse and abuse.

He said the daily experiences of health workers in the use of opioids for pain management had not only brought to the fore, but the critical role also they play in alleviating unbearable suffering among patients.

Health workers must be familiar with other distinct challenges such as clinical access issues, regulatory pressure and the “disturbing rise in the incidence of their misuse and abuse, even among healthcare professionals,” that came with them.

Speaking at the opening of a two-day workshop on rational use of drugs for the staff of the hospital in Kumasi, Prof Addai-Mensah, said with greater access to the medications, healthcare providers are at higher risk of misuse due to the stress-prone nature of their professions and easier access to controlled substances.

Opioids misuse within the healthcare sector, he pointed out, did not only pose personal health risks, but also affected the quality of patient care, professional integrity, and standards, as well as the general healthcare delivery system.

There was, therefore, the need for multi-faceted approaches and tactics, including discrete and sustained rehabilitation and other support services for healthcare workers, while strengthening mental health programmes and stringent enforcement of institutional policies to curb misuse and abuse of opioids by health professionals.

The workshop which was on the theme “optimal use of opioids: a review of the main issues, challenges and strategies” was part of management strategies to improve the quality of service, including pharmaceutical ones rendered to patients.

Among the topics to be discussed are clinical use of opioids, new psychoactive substances- a threat to the regulation of controlled substances, prevalence and impacts of opioids abuse among health workers, and management of opioids: regulatory perspective.

Prof Addai-Mensah said rational use of drugs was of paramount importance in any health care, and it was a proven indicator of the quality of clinical services rendered by healthcare facilities.

He said opioids had emerged as one of the most effective remedies to pain management resulting in their widespread use as they brought considerable relief to sufferers.

However, many chronic sufferers do not have access to effective pain management for a variety of reasons.

Among them are limited access, restrictions, personal and cultural biases, and misconceptions about the use of opioids.

Prof Addai-Mensah called for the prioritization of opioid use in Africa while strengthening measures to address its misuse, including, within the health care sector.

Dr. Mrs. Olivia Boateng, Director of Tobacco and Substance Abuse at the Ghana Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), said the use of codeine containing cough syrups had been banned in Ghana.

She said the FDA was putting in mechanisms to prevent other psychoactive drug abuses.

The Authority was regulating and controlling opioids to be used within a particular period.

She said the FDA required that the dispensing of opioids was done within stipulated guidelines.

Madam Yaa Bema Sarkodie, a pharmacist at KATH, who took the health professionals through the clinical use of opioids, urge them to administer the drugs judiciously.