Poor Handling of Emergency Cause Deaths in Ghana

Dr Godwin Ahlija, President of the Doron Medical Centre has called for periodic training of health professionals in the handling of emergency medical cases.

He said the lack of proper handling of emergency cases by health professionals had been a major factor leading to several avoidable deaths in health facilities in the country.

Dr Ahlija made the call at a workshop organised for Nurses and health workers, by the Doron Medical Centre, in collaboration with the United States of America Ambulance Service group, at the New Jerusalem Health Centre, near Afienya, in the Ningo/Prampram District of the Greater Accra Region.

The US emergency experts and paramedics took health workers through professional handling of burns, epileptic seizures trauma, and musculoskeletal injuries and bleeding of accident victims.

The Participants were drawn from Prampram, Oyibi, Afienya, Kpone Katamanso and other parts of the Tema region.

Dr Ahlija said the unpleasant situation was a combination of health workers negligence or non-application of the acquired professional skills that leads to the death of some patients.

He said: “Majority of health service workers only learn to pass their examinations and do not bring the knowledge acquired to bear on the job while others even have little or no knowledge in the handling of emergency cases.”

He assured that the Doron Medical Centre would continue organising such important workshops annually for health workers in the area.

Miss Zulema Garcia, the leader of the emergency experts from the US, said she lives in a country where emergency service was provided swiftly just by a phone calls, and therefore deemed it necessary to train health workers in Ghana to understand the significance of proper handling of emergency healthcare delivery.

She hinted of the group’s intension to establish the first Emergency Medical Service programme in Ghana.

Mr Daniel Asare, the Head of the Jerusalem Community Health Centre said the facility, which was established about seven months ago has helped the catchment areas, where hitherto, patients with emergency cases had to be conveyed to the Tema General Hospital, and in some cases leading to loss of lives due to vehicular traffic.

He said the Afienya/Appolonia road had deteriorated and called on the Ministry of Roads and Transport to fix it to save the lives of the people, especially patients.

GNA

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