As part of efforts to promote bilateral trade between the UK and Ghana, the UK-Ghana Chamber of Commerce (UKGCC),on 18th June 2022, held the maiden edition of the Royal Ascot Ladies Day Event in Ghana to celebrate the iconic annual UK cultural event.
Ascot, one of Britain’s most well-known racecourses, holds a special week of races in June each year called the Royal Ascot, attended by Her Majesty the Queen.
The event, in Ghana was held to raise funds to support the installation of a clinical trials unit at the University of Ghana Medical Centre (UGMC) in Accra.
The unit will help the centre identify the best treatment for diseases in the country.
Addressing the media, Executive Director of the UK-Ghana Chamber of Commerce, Adjobah Kyiamah noted that the purpose of the event forms part of efforts to improve Ghana’s health sector.
“We were looking for an event that we could tie to a charitable course that the chamber can champion and we thought if we are to promote the UK in Ghana, then, why don’t we host an ‘Ascort’ experience on the ladies’ day, because ‘Ascort’ racist has been running all of this week in the UK and today is ladies day at ‘Ascort’ in the UK, so we’re replicating it here,” she said.
Head of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Korle Bu and National Coordinator for the University of Ghana Medical Centre (UGMC), Dr. Christian Owu, noted that the donation will go a long way to help provide quality health treatment to the university community.
“This would give the UGMC the opportunity to monitor the treatment of patients and modify the treatment to suit our conditions. If you have a chronic disease and you are taking medicine, it’s probably not been tested on somebody like you, so you may be adversely reacting but not be aware that it’s the medicine that is causing the reaction.
With this clinical trial unit, what would happen is that even for our traditional or herbal medicines, we all know there is no literature on the treatment regime manifest in patients, but with the clinical unit, it gives us the opportunity to record this and put it in literature so that even future generations can benefit from it,” he said.