There is every indication to believe that the enormous challenges facing the health sector in the Northern Region of
According to reports from the Northern Regional Coordinating Council (NRCC), “Out of the 251 nurses currently at post in the region, 20 would be retiring from active service within five (5) years and 44 representing 18% would also be due for retirement within the next five years. With the 98 enrolled nurses at post, 54 nurses are within the age of 50 to 55 years”.
The Deputy Northern Regional Minister, San Nasamu Asabigi disclosed this on Thursday August 19, 2010, when he delivered a statement on behalf of the Regional Minister Moses Bukari Mabengba, at the 7TH Annual National Conference of the General Nurses Group-Ghana in Tamale, the Northern Regional capital.
Aside the insufficient health personnel in the area, he noted that there is also the problem of poor roads network, lack of modern health equipment and facilities contributing to high maternal and infant mortality rate, unnecessary deaths emanating from common illnesses, unsafe abortion, among others. The region occupies about 30% of the total landmass of Ghana with about 5,000 communities some of which are hard-to-reach areas, and this poses so many challenges to the quality healthcare delivery, he added.
By the year 2015, the government of Ghana like many other governments across the globe is expected to make significant gains in the MDGs 1 to 8 set by the United Nations some years ago at a high level consultation forum. But already, goals 4, 5 and 6 are facing serious setbacks in most parts of Ghana due to lack of medical personnel to solve the health needs of the people. Goal 4 targets at reducing by two thirds the mortality rate among children under five. MDG 5 also targets at reducing by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio and achieve, by 2015, universal access to reproductive health, whereas goals 6 seeks to halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS, achieve, by 2010, universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS for all those who need it and further halt and begin to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases.
The Northern Regional Minister therefore, made a passionate appeal to government for more nurses to be posted to the rural areas as well as the districts, adding that the District Assemblies have put in place the necessary infrastructure that will make the stay of health personnel comfortable.
Speaking on the theme: “Effective Infection Prevention and Control: A Key to Quality Nursing Care”, Chairperson of the General Nurses Group, Mrs. Georgina Nortey, said safety at work places including infection prevention among health staff and patients is one of the factors that could contribute to the attainment of the MDGs especially goals 4, 5 and 6.
According to her, nurses and midwives by virtue of relatively longer contract time on daily basis have a higher risk of acquiring and transmitting infections at health facilities. Records have shown that 1,270,474 health workers were infected with Hepatic B whiles 108,812 infected with Hepatic C, she disclosed.
Mrs. Nortey also said it has been observed that 1.4 million people including nurses suffer from hospital acquired infections daily and the consequences include high morbidity and mortality, high socio-economic cost and low productivity.
The Chairperson of the General Nurses Group appealed to government to address the problem of delay in processing salaries of newly qualified nurses, lack of infrastructure and logistics, lack of incinerators in most health institutions and reducing the workload on personnel.
The General Nurses Group was formed 19 years ago to create a platform for clinical nurses to discuss contemporary nursing issues as a way of updating the knowledge base of members to keep them abreast with modern trends of the nursing profession. The group comprises of all nurses working in the various hospitals and on the wards across the country and has branches in all the regions except Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions.
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