Medical superintendents urged to equip staff with knowledge on emergencies
Medical Superintendents have been urged to ensure that staff working under them are equipped with the requisite skills to handle emergency cases.
Dr. Cynthia Bannerman, Deputy Director of Institutional Care of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), who said this at the launch of the seventh annual general conference of the Medical Superintendents' Group in Accra noted that promptness to deliver quality care during emergencies must also be ensured.
She noted that appropriate linkages of facilities for referral of cases were essential to ensure quality health care and advised them to cultivate positive attitudes like being compassionate and showing love for those who needed their services.
The conference, slated for Tamale from October 8-11, 2008 will have the theme: “Disaster Here, Disaster There… How Prepared Are We? Hospital and Emergency Preparedness.”
The conference would sensitize policy makers and government to focus attention on issues to emergency relating to preparedness, stimulate the agenda for specialty in emergency medicine, advocate for skills development in emergency care and equip participants with skills in mass casualty incident management.
Dr. Bannerman advised medical superintendents to also extend compassion and care to the relatives of patients who would be occupying every space in the hospitals just to ensure that their sick relatives were given the needed care and support.
Mr. Twumasi Appiah, Member of Parliament for Sene and a member of the Parliamentary Select Committee for Interior and Defence, said there was the need for the country to put in place appropriate policies to ensure that, “we will be well-equipped to address disasters having seen what has happened in other countries”.
He assured the group of his support and contribution when issues on disasters were raised on the floor of Parliament.
Dr. Tom Awua Siaw, Director of Institutional Care Division of GHS, called for support from the general public to assist in managing disasters.
He said, over 95 per cent of all deaths were caused by disasters in developing countries and losses caused by these disasters were 20 times greater, adding, “from tsunamis to terrorist's attacks we are all at risk as a nation and we need to improve on our preparedness”.
Dr. Kofi Normanyo, General Secretary of the group, said all types of medical institutions were accessed during mass casualty situations, irrespective of the health facility, and called for need to plan ahead “just in case there is an event with the probability of a disaster”.