Fifty-five health aides passed out

Sunyani, Jan. 8, GNA - A first batch of 55 health aides at the Brong-Ahafo Regional Training Centre in Sunyani have passed out after a six-month course.

The aides, 40 females and 15 males, will assist health professionals as a way of filling the vacuum created by the exodus of some health personnel from the region to other countries. Speaking at the graduation ceremony Alhaji Dr Mohammed Bin Ibrahim, Regional Director, Ghana Health Service (GHS), said the country was losing doctors, nurses and other health personnel to the developed countries on a daily basis.

"This has compelled the few health professionals left to perform extra duties, sometimes to the detriment of their health." He said the GHS had realised that there should be a new crop of health workers who could in no small measure help the few health professionals to perform their duties.

The six-month course involved theoretical work in nursing practice, basic anatomy and physiology, communication and inter-personal skills, microbiology and personal hygiene, ethics, environmental and family life and first aid.

The practical aspect of the course embodied observation of vital signs, bed making, decontamination of instruments and clothing, receiving and making telephone calls and cleaning and dusting. The Regional Director said a calculated effort was being made to have the newly qualified health workers employed as soon as possible to lessen the burden on health professionals.

Dr Ibrahim thanked the Regional Minister, Nana Kwadwo Seinti, the district assemblies and the Regional Hospital Management Team as well as some health institutions for sponsoring the training of the aides. He commended the trainers, co-ordinators, supervisors and clinical instructors for producing the first batch of health aides in the region. Nana Seinti urged the graduates to work hard.

The course perfect, Mr Stephen Nkrumah, commended the government for the programme, which he said, had offered employment to the unemployed and expressed the hope that it would be sustained.