Medical Director bemoans absenteeism of health staff at work

Dr Patrick Atobrah, Medical Director of the Upper East Regional Hospital in Bolgatanga has expressed worry about the attitude of some health professionals towards the delivery of health care at the facility.

He said health professionals, especially nurses and midwives in the facility had lackadaisical attitudes towards work, and observed that shifts which were supposed to be ran by five nurses were often ran by two, and sometimes one because most nurses stayed away without properly seeking permission.

Dr. Atobrah was speaking at a staff durbar of the hospital, which offered staff the opportunity to express their views and opinions on activities of the facility and how to strategize for quality health care delivery.

He said management issued notices to all departments indicating that most staff reported to work late, and some left before closing times, while others stayed away from work without permission from the appropriate office.

He said such attitudes were against the code of conduct and disciplinary procedures of the Ghana Health Service and warned that any staff who indulged in such misconducts would be punished accordingly.

The Medical Director noted that “Some of you are doing very well, but we should not allow the few ones to break our backs with the over-burdened workload.”

He urged his staff to report colleagues who cooked up excuses and stayed away without properly seeking permission to management for redress, adding that the situation where staff defended colleagues who illegally stayed away from work affected health service delivery.

Dr. Atobrah said it was the duty of staff to ensure that the facility survived to render quality health care to members of the community, and insisted that “It is our responsibility to make sure that this facility survives.”

“If we do that, we will be able to move about freely and interact with members of the community happily,” he added.

He encouraged them to continue to contribute their quota to the overall health care delivery in the Region.

Mr. Irenious Kuulanang Angso, the Human Resource (HR) Manager of the hospital during open forum, called on heads of departments within the hospital to recommend names of hardworking staff to management for further studies and promotions.

This, according to him, would motivate and ensure that staff, especially nurses and other healthcare professionals contributed their best at their various units.

Addressing some concerns of staff at the programme including; shortage of nurses, Mr. Zakariah Yakubu, Head of Administration of the hospital, said management appreciated the contributions of every staff.

He said even though they could not have the greater number of professionals the way they wanted, he entreated them to continue to deliver care to the best of their ability and called on the few recalcitrant staff to desist from acts that would bring the image of the facility into disrepute.