Third phase of rehabilitation works of Bolga Hospital underway

Ghana and Saudi Arabia on Tuesday signed a contract for the commencement of the third phase of the rehabilitation of the Bolgatanga Hospital in the Upper East Region.

The Saudi Government is to provide 12 million dollars as grant while Ghana would contribute two million dollars towards the execution of the project expected to take four years to complete.

As part of the preparations, a technical team made up of architects, surveyors and engineers from a Saudi Consultancy firm has arrived in Bolgatanga to hold a stakeholders meeting with the Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Service.

DAOVTECH, a Ghanaian consultancy firm will partner Saudi Consultancy Service to undertake the project.

Dr. John Koku Awoonor-Williams, Regional Director of Health Services said feasibility studies had been completed and work would soon commence.

He expressed dissatisfaction about the first and second phases of the project, explaining that following series of meetings held by the stakeholders it is expected that quality work would be done to raise the hospital to a regional hospital status. Read more

Three nurses to be in court for assaulting a patient

Three nurses at the La General Hospital may soon be hauled before court for allegedly assaulting a patient.

The patient named only as Aso was said to have been manhandled by the three in the full glare of other patients last week after petty squabble had ensued.

Lawyer for the victim, Mark Diamond Nyamakor told Joy News his client had sought medical attention for stomach ache, but was incensed by the alleged apathetic behavior of the nurses.

Frustrated by the attitude of the nurses, Aso was said to have insulted one of them, which provoked the assault, Nyamakor narrated. Read more

‘Parents must immunise all under- six children’

Dr George Amofa, Deputy Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), on Friday urged parents to ensure that their children below six years are given polio immunisation during the national exercise.

He said Polio was a life long devastating disease, hence the partnership between the GHS, World Health Organisation and UNICEF to immunise children each year to boost their immune system.

Dr Amofa was speaking when he joined the Deputy Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Babal Jamal and the Deputy Regional Director of Health, Dr George Bonsu, to monitor the administration of the vaccine in the Yilo Krobo District. Read more

Sexually active women need free contraceptives – Dr Samba

Dr. Ali Samba, a gynaecologist at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, has advocated free distribution of contraceptives to women in sexually active stage, to help reduce maternal mortality in Ghana, caused by unsafe abortions and complications during pregnancy.

He said that even though the current maternal mortality rate of 451 per 100,000 women was alarming, it could be reduced by 40 per cent if effective maternal health care delivery programmes were implemented.

Dr. Samba was speaking at the end of a workshop organized by the Human Rights Advocacy Centre (HRAC), Reducing Maternal Maternity and Morbidity (R3M) Programme, Centre for Gender Studies and Advocacy (CEGENSA) and the Ghana Health Service (GHS), in Accra on Thursday. Read more

Deputy Minister dismisses accusation of misleading Parliament

The Deputy Health Minister, Rojo Mettle Nunoo, has rejected criticisms that he erred in his presentation to Parliament on the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).

He told Parliament Wednesday that implementing the NDC’s campaign promise of a onetime premium will be too expensive, costing as much as GH¢678 per adult.

His boss Dr. Benjamin Kumbour subsequently described his pronouncements as misleading because government has not taken any such position.

But Rojo Mettle Nunoo insists he did nothing wrong. Read more

Health Minister issues national apology over one-time premium faux-pas

An attempt by the Deputy Health Minister to explain how difficult it will be for government to implement the one-time premium payment under the National Health Insurance Scheme has provoked a national apology from his boss, Dr. Benjamin Kumbuor.

Rojo Mettle Nunoo on the floor of Parliament on Wednesday quoted details of what he says is an actuarial report conducted by government on the one time premium policy.

According to him, each Ghanaian per the going premium rate, would be required to pay no less than GH¢600.00 before the one-time premium policy could be possible. But this he admitted, was quite expensive.

He was brought to parliament to answer a question on behalf of the substantive minister on whether the actuarial report on the one-time premium policy was out and the details thereof. Read more

GH¢10,000 for Glaucoma awareness annually

The Ministry of Health (MOH) has decided to support the Glaucoma Association of Ghana with GH¢10,000 annually from its budget to sustain advocacy and awareness creation activities.

In addition, it has appealed to public and private eye care institutions to institute eye screening for all persons above 35 years as part of the celebration of World Glaucoma Day on March 12, to help in the early detection of eye diseases.

Mr. Rojo Mettle Nunoo, Deputy Minister of Health, announced this in a speech read on his behalf at the launching of Glaucoma Week in Accra on Wednesday. Read more

Gov’t urged to reconsider decision to sack health extension workers

Government has been urged to reconsider a decision to lay off health extension workers employed by the previous government, under the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP).

Mr Opoku Agyeman Prempeh, a businessman in Kumasi, said such workers should rather be supported to enroll in nursing and community health training institutions in order to be fully integrated into the health sector.

He said they had already obtained considerable work experience and should be given additional training to sharpen their skills and competences.

He added that they could play significant role in rural communities that were unattractive to many of the country’s health professionals. Read more

Striking Korle-Bu workers return to work

Striking workers of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital have agreed to resume work after management promised to resolve their grievances by close of week.

The workers, made up mainly of accounting staff and pharmacy technicians, want management to implement a 17-percent salary increment from last year.

However, after a meeting with the management of the hospital, the workers have agreed to resume work.

Chief Executive of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Prof. Nii Otu Nartey, who said he was not aware of any strike at the hospital, indicated workers should be paid latest by next week.

According to the CEO, although management planned on paying workers December last year, “financial difficulties” bedeviling the hospital made it impossible.

Prof Nii Nartey said salaries of the striking workers are drawn from NHIS levies paid to the hospital as the workers are not on government
payroll.

Source: Myjoyonline.com/Ghana

Address counterfeit and sub-standard drugs influx

The Ministry of Health (MoH), has urged the Pharmacy Council to address the influx of counterfeit and sub-standard drugs and the indiscriminate peddling of all manner of medicines across the country.

The ministry has also developed five key priority areas which include improved interventions towards the achievements of the health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), adequate water supply to health facilities, adequate bed supply to the health institutions and harmonising the scattered malarial interventions to ensure effective malarial control to optimise health delivery in Ghana.

The Deputy Minister of Health, Dr Nii Oakley Quaye-Kumah, made this known at the inauguration ceremony of the boards and governing councils of the Pharmacy Council, the Nurses and Midwives Council and the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH). Read more

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