According to the IGP, the fund was triggered by his own experiences with officers who were injured in the line of duty but are struggling to secure funds for the needed medical attention.
“We are putting things in place to revive your welfare and I’ll give you two first. Very soon there will be an operationalisation, we are waiting for a presidential endorsement, which of course the President will come in and launch. There will be an over one million dollars police emergency intervention fund.
“Any officer who in line of duty gets sick or injured, we will not wait for any paper to be worked on from minister of interior, minister of finance and chasing round round looking for money to treat that person, we will immediately get help for that person.
“We will have funds available to treat that person wherever that treatment should be been it Ghana or abroad,” the IGP told officers in the Ashanti region where he is currently on a working tour.
Dr Dampare also assured the officers of efforts to improve medical access for them.
“We are establishing police Virtual Medical Center. You can be in Kumasi or wherever and still be in police hospital in Accra. And if you don’t understand let me explain to you.
“You just download the app onto your phone and if you’re sick at any time of the day or midnight and you want to see a doctor, you will just go and press the app and it will tell you what time and how many minutes you have to wait to see a doctor virtually.
“So as soon as your time comes five minutes, 10 minutes, then the doctor will do video call and start consulting. And after a consultation, then electronically, the lab request will be sent to you”.