MSG CALLS FOR POLICY ON DISASTER MANAGEMENT (PAGE 3)

THE Medical Superintendents Group (MSG) of Ghana has called for a national disaster policy with a holistic approach to effectively deal with disasters and mass casualty incidents in the country.
It also advocated the introduction of a postgraduate programme in emergency medicine that would look at the entire system of disaster, instead of only emergency case management.
According to the group, the establishment of a strategic stockpile of medicines and equipment in at least two vantage points of the country was imperative for the effective management of disasters.
Making the call at the 7th annual general conference of the MSG in Tamale, its president, Dr George Acquaye, stressed the need for a well-organised system that would cover issues such as a review of land use, state funding and laws enhancing the mobilisation of resources to manage disasters promptly.
The conference had the theme, “Disasters here, disasters there. How prepared are we? Hospitals and emergency preparedness”.
The three-day conference discussed issues such as policy review on emergency preparedness in Ghana, experiences from the northern floods of 2007, an approach to handling disaster and mass casualty incidents, procurement under disasters, as well as identification and management of the critically injured patient.
Dr Acquaye noted that “a holistic national emergency response approach should involve individuals, communities, organisations, hospitals and public health institutions in an organised, well-established system of managing disasters and mass casualty incidents”.
He mentioned overcrowding in health institutions, with no available space to handle the initial upsurge of victims, obsolete equipment, inadequate staff and financial constraints as major challenges to ensuring effective disaster management in the health sector.
A Deputy Minister of Health, Mrs Gladys Norley Ashitey, noted that recently a gloomy picture of the country’s emergency preparedness was exhibited when a landslide occurred near Adukrom in the Akuapem North District of the Eastern Region.
According to her, such a situation was a wake-up call on stakeholders to ensure that emergency preparedness was taken to a higher level.
“The time has now come for us to move from conscientisation to policy action and implementation I, therefore, challenge my outfit and its partners to commit more resources and the political will to make emergency preparedness an easy task in healthcare delivery,” Mrs Ashitey said.
The Deputy Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr George Amofa, bemoaned the poor attitude to emergencies on the part of some health personnel.
“I am aware of the multi-faceted factors which prevent proper planning and especially the execution of an effective emergency preparedness system, but our major concern is the unacceptable part our poor attitude to work plays in all these,” he further stressed.
According to him, the apparent inaction and lack of a sense of urgency and concern by some staff were marring the dedicated work being done by the majority of the staff.
Dr Amofa equally expressed concern about the mal-distribution of health staff, especially doctors, in the country.
“We are particularly concerned about the manner in which housemen and specialists from the teaching and regional hospitals and the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons find their way to various hospitals after their training,” he stated.
The Northern Regional Minister, Alhaji Mustapha Ali Idris, urged health personnel to accept posting to the region to help improve on health indicators in the area.