Dr. Yvonne Yirenkyiwaa Esseku MPhil; MA; PGCOSHEM; LLB; BL; B. Pharm (Hons); FGCPharm; MPSGH; FNSC-GH, PhD

Yvonne Yirenkyiwaa Esseku is a pharmacist, a pharmacologist, lawyer, a management consultant and an educator. She has experience in leadership, governance, policy and human resource management. She has been involved in the development of policy and training documents and has led and participated in the drafting and review of constitutions and by-laws for a number of organizations. She is a lecturer of pharmacology, toxicology, medical law and ethics and leadership. Yvonne has played a lead role in the management and implementation of several projects. Her strong interpersonal skills have afforded effective communication and building of teamwork among both senior and junior colleagues.

Yvonne is currently the Rector of the Ghana College of Pharmacists. In this capacity, she is head of the Agency and has responsibility for the academic and administrative operation of the College. She organised the first ever Valedictory Lecture for the College. This Valedictory Lecture has now been institutionalised by the Council of the College as a feature on the calendar of the College. She facilitated the acquisition of new offices and a lecture hall for the College. She has led the College to respond rapidly to meeting the changing training needs in the pandemic and following lockdown. This was done by migrating all lectures and training sessions online with only sessions requiring hands-on experience being done in-person. This has ensured that training of candidates has not stalled unnecessarily. The College is currently in the process of launching its first ever journal for the dissemination of scientific information.

Yvonne is Vice President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana (PSGH). In this capacity, she assists the President in leading the Society. She also leads the drive to extend pharmaceutical services in improving public health. Her work has led to a recognition of Pharmacists in vaccination and other public health matters. Currently, Pharmacists are undergoing training as Pharmacist Vaccinators to support the public health drive with particular focus on COVID-19 vaccination. The Pharmacist Vaccinators are also equipped to administer all other vaccines. More recently, she led the PSGH COVID FUND which raised funds to support the National COVID-19 effort and distribute much needed Personal Protective Equipment to Community Pharmacies nationwide and eight (8) COVID-19 treatment centres in the country.

She also serves as Chair of the Disciplinary Committee of the Society, where she has led the design and implementation of training programmes on ethics and professionalism for Pharmacists. The training is designed to prevent practitioners from getting into compromising situations and undertaking practices that result in professional misconduct. The committee has also actively engaged the Pharmacy Council which regulates the practice. This is to ensure that decisions taken on behalf of the Governing Board of the Society will have the full backing of the regulator.

She served as National Chairperson of the Lady Pharmacists Association of Ghana from 2013 to 2017. She led the association in the development and implementation of projects with different partners, aimed at ensuring rational use of medicines, assuring the safe use of medicines and improving the general wellbeing of beneficiaries. LAPAG has been an effective member of the National Platform on Anti-Microbial Resistance, undertaking community activities level educational activities aimed at educating participants on the antimicrobial (focusing particularly on antibiotic) use, abuse and resistance. Under her leadership, LAPAG undertook the Safe Use of Safer Medicines in Ghanaian Communities project in collaboration with the Scandinavian Pharmacists without Border (FuG) and the Anglican Diocese of Accra (ADOA). LAPAG also launched the LAPAG against Women Cancers project aimed at educating women and the general populace on cancer that affect women, how they can be detected and the importance of early diagnosis and treatment to ensuring improved prognosis. Under this project, a number of lady pharmacists were trained in the clinical breast screening. These skills have been utilised in various breast screening activities undertaken by the association. During her term, LAPAG also undertook educational trips and educated participants in festivities in Kwahu on reproductive health and the rational use of medicines.

She was the Technical Coordinator of the Commonwealth Partnerships for Antimicrobial Stewardship (CwPAMS) under the auspices of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana and the Commonwealth Pharmacists Association (CPA). In that role, sh provided technical support to all the local partners on the project provides on-the-ground presence for THET, the Fund Manager. She also liaised between the partners and stakeholders such as governmental and non-governmental agencies in health to promote the effective uptake of the project and engender sustainability of the learnings and benefits of the project.

She has served as Vice Chair of the Community Practice Pharmacists Association. In that role she supported the development and rollout of Standard Operating Procedures for the Association. She also led in the training of Pharmacists in the development of SoPs for their facilities as they recognised a need for such documents.

She has also served as Member of the Constitutional Advisory Committee and Member of the Constitutional Review Committee for the Society.

She is a Fellow of the Ghana College of Pharmacists, Fellow of the National Safety Council – Ghana, Member of Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana, Member of the International Society of Pharmacovigilance, Councillor of the Commonwealth Pharmacists Association and Editor-in-Chief of the Ghana Safety and Health Journal.

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