The Mayor of Accra, Hon. Michael Kpakpo Allotey, has initiated an Annual Birthday Health Screening Initiative to encourage residents and staff of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly to use their birthdays as a reminder to undertake routine medical checks, with implementation to be spearheaded by the Accra Metropolitan Health Directorate.

The initiative, which outlines preventive health priorities in the metropolis, aims to promote the early detection of health conditions and reduce preventable illnesses and deaths by making annual screenings a consistent personal habit for adults, particularly those aged 30 years and above.

The recommended “birthday gift to self” package for adults aged 30 and above includes baseline checks such as blood pressure monitoring and body mass index assessment, alongside laboratory tests including fasting blood sugar, kidney function, liver function and lipid profile (cholesterol).

It also includes cardiac enzyme testing as part of routine checks while recommending prostate-specific antigen testing for men and cervical cancer screening and breast examination options such as mammography or ultrasound for women, as applicable.

Speaking at the 2025 District Health Annual Conference/Annual Performance Review of the Accra Metro Health Directorate, held under the theme “Leveraging partnerships and strengthening government systems to advance safety and quality and improved service,” the Mayor  linked the initiative to national efforts to expand preventive health access, indicating that work was underway to ensure that routine preventive services could be covered under the National Health Insurance Scheme  as part of a free primary healthcare policy direction, so that cost would not prevent residents from undertaking recommended tests.

The Metropolitan Director of Health Service, Dr. Louisa Ademki Matey, noted that the approach deliberately ties health checks to birthdays because the date is widely remembered and can serve as a dependable cue for routine health promotion and disease prevention.

She said the initiative was meant to strengthen a culture of preventive healthcare, especially among adults 30 years and older, noting that early detection was critical to saving lives and that many avoidable deaths could be prevented through consistent annual screening.

She said the focus on routine screening was intended to help residents identify health risks earlier, seek timely care and reduce the burden of complications that often arise when conditions are detected late.

Touching on quality of care, Dr. Matey said health workers must consistently test service delivery against whether care was safe, timely, effective, efficient, equitable, and patient-centred, and urged staff to uphold the Ghana Health Service values of professionalism, teamwork, integrity, discipline, excellence and patient-centredness.