The Chairman of Parliament’s Health Committee, Dr. Kwabena Twum Nuamah, has said the Joint Committee on Health and Constitutional Affairs has started work in earnest to address the no-bed syndrome affecting public hospitals in the country.
According to him, the joint committee has met and is drafting recommendations that will focus on ending the challenge which has plagued the country’s public health sector, and led to the death of many Ghanaians.
[contextly_sidebar id=”8B7IA4ghnsrNnQxQ41akRJCvqZRincfd”]Dr. Twum Nuamah, who is also the Berekum East MP, acknowledged that the country’s health sector in its current state was not the best, adding that the committee is likely to meet its 2-week deadline to come out with the road-map to addressing some of the teething challenges of the health sector.
“There is also the real challenge of congestion in our hospitals; a lot of the facilities are ill-equipped. So sometimes the numbers overwhelm the few of them who have the means to handle emergencies. There are certain facilities that exist but have very little equipment so they can’t do a lot,” he said.
Dr. Kwabena Twum Nuamah also mentioned that there is the need to address holistically, the challenges facing the health sector.
According to him, inasmuch as health professionals need to work on improving their attitudes towards work, government also has a responsibility to provide the necessary equipment for hospitals to function adequately.
“So that is why I’m saying that it is a dual thing, while we work on the human resource, work attitude bit for the health professionals, the state must also be up and doing to provide the equipment and the facility so that no one will have the luxury of saying that we don’t even have a bed.” He added.
The MP further decried the unavailability of ambulances in the country, noting that it was critical for the achievement of an effective emergency health care response system.
There are currently just 55 functional ambulances for Ghana’s 29 million population.
Background
Policy makers have been awakened to the ailing health system after a 70-year-old man died because he could not get a bed in all 7 hospitals he visited in one night.
The Speaker of Parliament last Tuesday [June 12] referred the matter of the no-bed syndrome to the two committees with a timeline of two weeks.
The Speaker urged the joint committee to deal with the matter urgently.
“I urge the committee to take this issue very seriously and report to this House in two weeks. They should visit appropriate quarters and come up with a well-reasoned argument for further action.”
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By: Jude Mensa Duncan/citinewsroom.com/Ghana