Reckless drivers in Ministry of Health to be put on trial

Henceforth drivers whose actions cause accidents resulting in the destruction of life and vehicles belonging to the Ministry of Health will be put on trial, Mr. Alban Bagbin, the Minister of Health, has said.

He said reckless driving on the part of drivers in the Ministry was a major problem and the government would no longer entertain such behaviour from drivers whose actions had caused the nation critical human resource.

“All accidents involving vehicles of the Ministry will be investigated and if it is found out to have been caused by the driver’s negligence due to intake of alcohol and other drugs, the laws of the land will be visited on that driver,” Mr Bagbin said.

He said this when he presented a 33-seater Daewoo bus to the Tumu Midwifery Training School at Tumu on Wednesday, and also lunched the Pneumococcal and Rotavirus Vaccines in the district.

The two new vaccines were being introduced into the routine Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) to help reduce morbidity and mortality due to pneumonia and diarrhea among children.

Mr. Bagbin said the government would open more midwifery training schools in the country and the Upper West Region would have two more.

He said the government was doing everything possible to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, especially Goals Four, Five and Six that were being challenged by inadequate health personnel, bringing pressure and stress to bear on the few personnel.

Madam Alijata Sulemana, Sissala East District Chief Executive, said in a speech read on her behalf that, the Sissala East District Assembly had awarded on contract the construction of a 12-unit two storey classroom complex for the midwifery school.

She said local stakeholders were also discharging their responsibilities with dispatch to get the school established and had acquired land for the construction of the school as well as a new district hospital.

She appealed to the government and other development partners to complement the efforts of the assembly to meet the infrastructural needs of the school.

Madam Laadi Kanton, Principal of the school commended the government for providing the school with a bus and appealed for a pick-up vehicle and permanent accommodation for the students who would be admitted this year.**