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Miss Margaret Forson, Deputy Central Regional Director in charge of Public Health, has said the continued use of protocol admissions in health training institutions is a major setback in health care delivery in the country.

She said the practice allowed unqualified individuals who did not have the love and passion for the nursing profession to become nurses and eventually demonstrate unprofessional behaviours at the hospitals to the detriment of patients.

Miss Forson said some of these young nurses tended to put up inappropriate behaviors at the various hospitals where they work because they had the backing of some influential persons who through protocol got them admitted into the nursing schools.

This, she said, had resulted in the GHS consistently receiving barrage of criticisms from clients and other service users as such behaviours were soiling the corporate image of health service in the country.

Miss Forson was addressing media practitioners and other key stakeholders at a press briefing on Post National launch of family planning week celebration in Cape Coast on Tuesday.

The national family planning week celebration was launched on Monday, September 26 in Accra on the theme: “Family Planning is your life: take control, it is an everyday thing”.

She said efforts by the GHS in instituting disciplinary action against such nurses had proved futile because the nurses did not respect authorities at the hospitals.

“There appears to be a shortage of caring nurses these days, the noble profession of compassionate care is losing its pristine image because of the bad behavior of some nurses”, she said.

Miss Forson expressed worry that patronage of family planning services was still a major challenge for health care providers in the Central Region despite increased awareness campaigns.

She said though the Region has more than 90 per cent awareness on family planning, many of its residents, especially women were adamant to accept it while teenage pregnancies continue to increase in communities within the Region.

“It is very disturbing to note that the family planning acceptor rate in the Central Region is on a downward trend from 16. 5 per cent in 2012 to 13. 5 per cent in 2015 but now stands at 15.6 per cent”, she said.

She said family planning was one of the most cost effective interventions available to save lives and improve the health of children and mothers hence the need for the communities to get involved to help create an enabling environment for the family to thrive. 

Miss Fordon said negative perceptions, discriminatory attitudes, lack of trained service personnel on some family planning methods, lack of education, lack of male involvement, socio-cultural as well as religious practices were the major hindrance to the efforts by GHS in tackling family planning.

She said as long as young people remained sexually active, they would not stop engaging in sex, therefore there was the need to make information on reproductive health available and guide them to make informed decisions about family planning.

She said the health directorate would continue to embark on sensitization programmes and build capacities of service providers to improve family planning service provision and counseling adding that, the directorate was determined to close the family planning gap.

Mr Mathew Ahwireng, Regional Health Education Officer who led a discussion on the role of the media in promoting family planning acceptance urged the media practitioners to devote much time to project family planning for enhanced usage.