Coalition threatens to withdraw from contact tracing

The Coalition of Graduate Unemployed Allied Health Professionals (COAHP) on Wednesday said it will withdraw the services of the 560 members from the COVID-19 Contact Tracing following neglect by the Ministry of Health (MOH).

A statement signed by Mr Vincent Amponsah Gyamfi, the General Secretary of COAHP, and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra, said the Association’s attention had been drawn to a letter indicating that nurses and midwives had been given financial clearance by the Ministry of Finance, leaving behind Allied Health Professionals.

“Our attention has been drawn to a letter with reference number MOH/HR/IT 005 from MOH indicating that nurses and midwives have been given financial clearance by the Ministry of Finance, leaving behind Allied Health Professionals who heeded to the calls of the President and Ghana Health Service to aid in the contact tracing of COVID-19 Patients,” it said.

The statement said COAHP was “shocked and surprised at the Health Ministry as this is the first time nurses and midwives are processed for posting without allied health professionals”.

“A unanimous decision has been made and members of the said group have given the Ministry of Health a week, starting from 08/04/2020 to 15/04/2020, to address our concerns or we will withdraw our members (560 members) from contact tracing teams,” the statement said.

The Coalition is made up of public health professionals: Health Information, Disease Control Nutrition, Health Promotion, Registered Dental Health Assistants, Medical Records Assistants, Field Technicians, Prosthetics and Orthotics, Physiotherapy and the Medical Laboratory Technicians.

Ghana has a total number of 287 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with Greater Accra, Greater Kumasi, Tema and Kasoa under a stay home directive for 14 days to curtail the spread of the virus.

So far 19,276 persons in the country have been reached through contact tracing and some testing has been conducted on 15,384 people.