By
Godfred A. Polkuu, GNA
Bolgatanga, July 17,
GNA – Dr Winfred Ofosu, the Upper East Regional Director of Health Services has
called on the Ghana Police Service to arrest and prosecute any health
professional in the Region who will be seen riding motorbike without wearing a
crash helmet.
He said the
initiative formed part of measures by the Regional Health Directorate to reduce
the rate of fatal accidents among health professionals in the region.
He said the Region
had lost strong and energetic young men and women through motorbike accidents
because they were not were not wearing crash helmets.
“We are losing our
staff. Just last week a staff was riding a motorbike without helmet, he had an
accident and died. If he was wearing a crash helmet, he would have sustained
some minor injuries and possibly stayed alive.”
Dr Ofosu who made
the call in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Bolgatanga,
expressed concern about the situation, and said even though the Directorate had
issued several cautions to all health institutions as a measure to check the
act, professionals, especially nurses and midwives were still seen in uniform
riding without crash helmets.
“We think that, it
is better for the Police to arrest, caution or even prosecute them, than to
allow them ride without helmets and die. It is quite painful that we are losing
staff this way,” he added.
The Director noted
that it was the responsibility of health professionals to encourage citizens to
put on crash helmets while riding motorbikes to avoid head injury, and
propagate the use of seat belts in cars, adding that, it was unfortunate they
were the very people acting contrary to these live saving practices.
He emphasised that;
“we need to set good examples as professionals for the citizens to follow,” and
added that the intervention of the Police would help curb the worrying
situation, and further give meaning to the education they offered citizens on
the need to use crash helmets to protect themselves from head injuries.
Dr Ofosu noted that
the region lost four nurses from the Nabdam, Builsa South, Bawku West Districts
and the Kassena-Nankana Municipality to motorbike accidents without crash
helmets, and called for attitudinal change among staff, especially nurses.
Mr Joseph Akurugu,
Transport Officer at the Health Directorate, used the opportunity in a separate
interviews to call on the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), to
institute measures to reduce the delay and bureaucracy that health
professionals, especially Community Health Nurses who mostly use motorbikes, go
through to acquire licenses.
He said the use of
motorbikes among Community Nurses was part of the training curriculum, and
appealed to officials of the DVLA to speed up the licensing process because
about 80 percent of these professionals who use official and personal
motorbikes for service delivery in the Region were riding without license and
they were not too familiar with road signs as well.
As part of the
measures to enforce the directives, the Health Directorate had directed all
Security Guards posted to health facilities in the region to ensure that
motorbike users who failed to wear crash helmets were not allowed entry into
premises of health facilities.
The GNA observed
that some public health facilities including the Regional Hospital, the
Regional Health Directorate and some clinics, had erected sign posts with the
inscription: “No Helmet, No Parking” to compel health officials and other
members of the public to the facilities use crash helmets.
GNA