Conference advocates engagement of En’tal Health Officers

The First National Food Hygiene and Sanitation Conference held in Ho on Wednesday called on government to review its policy on the “freeze on employment” to enable newly qualified Environmental Health Officers to be employed.

The Conference observed that products of the Schools of Hygiene who had completed their training since 2009 have not been employed while the country grappled with issues related to their field of training.

It observed that the Environmental Health Division of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, the crucial machinery for achieving preventive health in Ghana, ought not to be starved of manpower and resources.

"The Conference could not rationalize the continuous employment of newly trained nurses who carry out curative health when those who were trained to teach people how-not- to-be sick were left redundant."

It said that called into question the country’s commitment to preventive health.

The Conference observed that policies were meant to improve the lives and material conditions of the citizenry and not to make them worse off.

Answering questions related to private practice, by newly qualified Environmental Health Officers, Mr Mathew Akormedi, Dean of Students of the School of Hygiene, Ho, said that was being addressed in the review of the curriculum of the Schools of Hygiene in the country to include entrepreneurship training.