The President of the Doron Medical Centre, Dr. Godwin Ahlija, says improper handling of emergency cases by health professionals is one major contributor to the deaths at several health facilities in Ghana.
He said the unpleasant development is a combination of health workers' negligence or non-application of acquired professional skills in the line of duty, thereby causing such avoidable deaths.
He made this assertion at a workshop organized by the Doron Medical Center in collaboration with a United States of America emergency service group, On-Site Health, and Safety for Health workers at New Jerusalem near Afienya in the Ningo-Prampram District of the Greater Accra Region.
The U.S Ambulance Service experts and EMS paramedics seek to take health workers through professional handling of burns, epileptic seizures, trauma, musculoskeletal injuries, bleeding, and accident victims before they are given medical attention.
Participants came from Prampram, Oyibi, Afienya, Kpone-Katamanso, Ashaiman and other parts of the Team region.
According to Dr. Ahlija, a majority of health service providers only learn to pass their exams and refuse to bring the knowledge acquired to bear on the job while others have scanty or no knowledge of treating emergency cases. The Doron Medical Center President advocated for a periodic organization of such workshops to equip health professionals with knowledge on EMS to reduce related casualties.
Dr. Ahlija, who disclosed that he lost a son due to poor emergency service pledged that the center will annually organize such important workshops for health workers in the vicinity to help prevent the worrying trend.
The leader of the On-Site Health and Safety, Zulema Garcia, said living in a country where emergency services are attached with professionalism and utter seriousness just by phone calls, the team deems it imperative to train health workers in Ghana to understand the significance of proper emergency handling in healthcare delivery.
Miss Garcia who hinted that the development contributes about 80 percent of emergency related deaths observed that the group intends to establish the first ever EMS programme in Ghana with their annual training workshop.
Head of the Jerusalem community, Daniel Asare, who was present at the workshop said the health facility established just about seven months ago has helped the catchment area, saying they, hitherto, had to convey SOS cases to the Tema General Hospital. The situation he noted resulted in the loss of lives due to the heavy vehicular traffic on that route.
Ghana | Atinkaonline.com | Edward Sebbie
