Category: Medical

Leadership of the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA) has advocated the need for targeted housing projects to reduce the housing deficit among public sector workers. Dr David Tenkorang-Twum, the Association's General Secretary (GS), who made the call in an interview with the Ghana News Agency at Pusu-Namongo in the Talensi District of the Upper East Region, said the GRNMA was concerned with the housing policy in the country. The GS was in the Region to witness the inauguration of new Regional executives for the GRNMA for the next four years. 'If we do targeted housing, for instance, we are building 10,000 unit houses for nurses and midwives, 5000 housing units for doctors, 20,000 housing units for teachers, only these categories of professionals would be able to apply for such houses, and it will help all of us,' he said. Dr Tenkorang-Twum said military, police officers and judges enjoyed affordable housing projects and advocated that same should be extended to other professional bodi es to reduce the housing deficit. 'Targeted housing regime is the best way, and we will recommend same to all the politicians who want our votes, that they must rise up and know that the past solutions are not working,' he said. Dr Tenkorang-Twum further emphasized the need for such housing projects to be decentralized across the Regions and Districts. He suggested that the houses could be rented out to the professionals, and the proceeds could be used to build more housing units for unborn generations. On welfare of members of the Association, Dr Tenkorang-Twum said, 'We think that welfare issues of nurses and midwives are poor in Ghana. Government must increase our salary. 'Our market premium is pegged as of 2012. We think that government should peg the market premium to the 2023 or 2024 basic salary, and we think that it will enhance the salary and nurses will stay in the country and work,' he said. Dr Tenkorang-Twum urged nurses and midwives to join the GRNMA, which was the only recognized nurses an d midwives Association with the power to negotiate for better conditions of service for members. He noted that the divisions within the nursing and midwifery professions were not necessary, 'When we come together, that is when we are more formidable. Unions that are respected in Ghana are unions that are formidable and not splinter groups. 'The Association has been in existence since 1960, there are systems of accountability, there are a lot of welfare systems in the Association; we are able to give as much as GHS80000.00 to a nurse or midwife who is a member with health issues,' he said. The GS said there were parcels of land sold to members across the Regions with hostel facilities at discounted costs for members. 'For instance, in the Greater Accra Regional hostel, if you are a member and you go to sleep there, you pay GHS50.00, if you are not a member, you pay GHS350.00. 'So if you are a nurse or midwife in Ghana, and you can sleep in a facility as beautiful as we have in the Upper East Region, and p ay GHS50.00, why wouldn't you want to be part of such a facility,' he quizzed. Source: Ghana News Agency

Mr Nkrumah Ogyile, the District Chief Executive (DCE) of Krachi Nchumuru, says the Agenda 111 hospital in the district will be completed and ready for use by June 2024. He told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that the 60-bed capacity project is currently about 70 per cent complete. He expressed satisfaction with the progress of work on the facility and indicated tentatively that the hospital would serve the people appropriately. The facility is mainly to deepen the delivery of quality healthcare at the district level and boost access to quality services for all citizens in the district. Mr Ogyile stated that the Agenda 111 project, when completed would have four state of the art surgical theatres for maternity, obstetrics and gynaecology, a full complement of male and female pediatric and isolation wards, accommodation for doctors, nurses and other health personnel, among others. The DCE said that having a 60-bed District hospital was no mean achievement as it would go a long way to impact the well-being of residents, especially as it placed health delivery at their doorsteps. He commended the government for the forward-looking project. When GNA visited the project site at Chinderi, Mr Homant Gosal, of the Shapoonji Pallonji construction firm, said that plastering was ongoing among others. Source: Ghana News Agency

Dr Richard Anthony, the Medical Director of the Tema General Hospital, has expressed worry at the alarming rate of people being brought to the hospital dead. Dr Anthony said a total of 1,079 people, including 621 males and 458, were brought to the Tema General Hospital dead on arrival in 2023. 'We recorded a worrying trend of several people being brought in dead on arrival; it is alarming,' he stressed. Speaking at the annual performance review of the Tema Metropolitan Health Directorate, he said the figure showed an increase over the 882 seen in 2022, adding that most of those brought in dead were in the working class. Dr Anthony said the hospital was looking into the possible causes of the trends and advised the public to promptly report any health issues to the nearest health institutions. He added that sick people who might develop some complications after discharge from admission should also immediately return to the hospital instead of staying at home in the hope that their health would improve. S tatistics from the hospital available to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) indicate that the top 10 certified causes of death conditions in 2023 were cerebrovascular diseases, cardiovascular diseases, hypertensive complications, and diabetic complications. The others were liver diseases, acute respiratory distress, severe sepsis, pneumonia, kidney diseases, and hypovolaemic shock. Source: Ghana News Agency

Nana Ainoo-Kwagyan III, the Chief of Esiama in the Ellembelle District of the Western Region, has expressed concern over the absence of a physician at the Esiama Clinic for the past one year. He said the situation was affecting healthcare delivery and appealed to the Government and other spirited organisations to help address it. Nana Ainoo-Kwagyan made the appeal when the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ellembelle, Mr Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, called on him at his Palace. The visit followed an invitation by the chief for interaction on some developmental challenges and how best they could partner to address them. The chief said the population of the Esiama Township was growing at a geometric progression and required a distinct physician to attend to the healthcare needs of the people. He urged the MP to assist in upgrading the Clinic to a hospital and said he was ready to release land for the project to serve the community. 'Esiama deserves a befitting hospital, the old clinic is like a CHPS compound,' he said. Mr Kofi Buah reminded the chief and elders of a district hospital project, which had been on the drawing board before the previous government left office, saying, the projections were made to site it hospital between Esiama and Nkroful. He assured the chief and his elders that measures were being put in place to build the hospital for the area. Source: Ghana News Agency

The International Children's Palliative Care Network (ICPCN) and the World Child Cancer (WCC) will lead a collaborative effort towards the development and improvement of children's palliative care (CPC) in Ghana. With a grant from THET's Global Health Workforce Programme, they would undertake the project dubbed #ChilPalCareGhana. The project was based on a needs assessment carried out in 2023, which identified the lack of education and training for the Ghanaian health and social care workforce as one of the key barriers blocking children's palliative care development. It is aimed at addressing gaps in CPC and building vital skills and knowledge capacity among healthcare professionals so that better care can be provided to the estimated 152,000 children living in Ghana with a condition that will shorten their lives. The project was launched on February 21, 2024, at the Ministry of Health and would be rolled out over a 12-month period from 2024 to January 2025. This was in a release jointly issued by the ICPCN and WCC and copied to the Ghana News Agency on Thursday. The release said the project has four key objectives organising monthly interactive webinars that would lead to covering different aspects of children's palliative care and involving CPC experts from around the world, with case studies and discussion. It would hold multi-professional training in CPC across Ghana - and will provide training to 120 health professionals in four regions of Ghana that consists of; face-to-face training, mentorship, virtual training, and a final face-to-face conference. It would provide clinical placements for trainees from each of the four training courses with CPC professionals at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital and the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital. Others would undertake a two-week clinical placement in the UK facilitated by the Association for Paediatric Palliative Medicine. The rest are specialist training who would work with professional organizations (Ghana College of Nurses and Midwives, Ghana College of Physic ians and Surgeons, and the Ghana College of Pharmacists) to review their curricula to ensure that CPC training is included and support six trainees to undertake these revised courses. In their contributions, Julia Downing, Chief Executive at ICPCN said: 'We are excited to be able to continue to support the development of children's palliative care in Ghana. 'This project is a natural progression from the needs assessment that we undertook with our partners in Ghana last year and an important step forward for children's palliative care in Ghana. 'We have seen the commitment of our partners in Ghana to implement children's palliative care including the Ghana Health Service, the Ministry of Health, Korle-Bu and Komfo-Anokye Teaching Hospitals, World Child Cancer and all the other partners involved in this project.' Mr Ayire Adongo, Regional Coordinator for Sub-Saharan Africa, WCC added that: 'We are extremely excited about winning this grant. It will help us realize our vision of improving the quality of li fe of children with cancer through building the capacities of healthcare professionals in children's palliative care in Ghana and the sub-region. 'Winning this project will help us to implement the recommendations from the situational analysis and needs assessment on children's palliative care in Ghana which was carried out in Ghana by ICPCN and its collaborators.' Source: Ghana News Agency