Health institutions lack lecture theatres…70% of tutors also have no accommodation

Principals of health training institutions in the Northern Region are extremely unhappy about inadequate infrastructures, which are impeding quality teaching and learning.

The principals expressed this in a voluminous speech read on their behalf by the Principal of the Damongo Health Assistants Training School, Mr. Cosmos Alhassan, at the first-ever joint matriculation of health training institutions in the Northern Region.

In all, over 2,040 students from the Tamale Nurses Training College, Tamale Community Health Training School, Damango Health Assistants Training School, Yendi Health Assistants Training School, School of Hygiene Tamale, Nalerigu Health Assistants Training School and Kpembe Health Assistants Training School were matriculated.

Mr. Cosmos Alhassan lamented that health institutions in the region were confronted with so many challenges, which required immediate government attention.

Apart from the lack of classrooms, lecture theatres, means of transport, practical/clinical tools, and students' hotel accommodations, about 70% to 80% of tutors in institutions across the region have no accommodation.

This situation, he noted, was demoralising the tutors and frustrating their efforts at promoting quality education among the health students.

Mr. Alhassan disclosed that the inadequate infrastructure was also affecting the intake of qualified students into the schools. The Principal, however, complained about the inadequate number of qualified tutors, which he said had become one of the major headaches confronting all the heads of the health training schools.

The Director of Human Resource for Health Development, Dr. Ebenezer Appiah-Denkyira, on behalf of the Minister of Health, Dr. Benjamin Kumbuor, advised the students to preserve life by making the needs of their patients their first priority in their line of duty.

He passionately called on the students to study hard, and be disciplined and professional on the job market to depict the inviolability of the health profession.

Dr. Appiah-Denkyira announced that the Ministry of Health was negotiating with the Coordinator of the National Youth Employment Programme, to consider personnel with the requisite qualification to participate in the Health Assistant Programme, since they had already shown their desire for the sector.

He commended the institutions for their performances, and urged them to include in their curriculum, customer care, value and ethics.

He announced plans by the Ministry to set up a mental health school in the Northern Region to help reduce the menace of mental cases, which was on the increase in the region.