The Upper West Regional Minister, Dr. Hafiz Bin Salih, has urged the people of the region to sleep in ventilated areas at all times as the period of Cerebrospinal Meningitis (CSM) approaches.
He also said measures were being put in place to respond to any possible outbreak of the disease in the region.
Dr. Salih said this in a speech read on his behalf by an Assistant Director at the Regional Coordinating Council (RCC), Mr James Kuussana Donkor, at the 2021 edition of the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA) awards ceremony in Wa last Thursday.
The ceremony was on the theme “Rediscovering the ethics of nursing, a step to nursing the people of upper west to health”.
Seventy nurses and midwives in the region were awarded in various categories, with Mr Ali Adam from the Wa East District emerging as the overall regional best nurse.
“I am pleased with how far Ghana Health Services in collaborating with nurses and midwives association and how long they have fed in the use of media and other platform”, he added.
The Minister charged the health professionals to be on their feet and to provide quality healthcare services to the people in the region.
“The attitude of some of us towards care giving in recent times even among our own work colleagues is boring and must be checked in order to rediscover the lost glory.
“The lack of care and neglect by some healthcare workers is a great concerned since this can lead to possible unwarranted deaths and lack of confidence in the personnel by clients that visit the health centre”, he explained.
On his part, Dr. Damien Punguyire, the Upper West Regional Director of Health Services, encouraged nurse and midwives to accept posting to rural areas to serve to the people in those areas.
He said all efforts by the Ghana Health Service to ensure fair distribution of the health personnel to all areas where their services were needed were hindered by the refusal of some of the personnel to accept positing to some of the areas.
Dr. Punguyire, also encouraged the nurses to deliver quality services to their clients to preserve the good image of the profession.
Madam Phoebe Balagumetime, the Nadowli-Kaleo District Director of Health Service said nursing is a noble profession that is recognised internationally and urged the practitioners to jealously guard that status.
She said nursing ethics provided professional standards for nursing activities and that those standards protected both the patient and the nurse.
“We have issues of our dressing code, poor communication, substance abuse and alcoholism. These are unpleasant and trample mostly on the patient/client’s rights, she added.
Mr. Lawrance Bagrmwine, the Upper West Regional Chairman of the GRNMA, said the association was aimed to ensuring good and hardworking attitude among its members and expressed optimism that with time that objective would be achieved.
According to him, the Upper West Regional Director of Health Service had indicated his readiness to release the regional best nurse to school on study leave, and encouraged the members of the profession endeavor to attain that status.
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