The Ghana Medical Association (GMA), Greater Accra Division, has started a training it members to equip them in the fight against the Ebola pandemic currently sweeping across the West Africa sub-region.
The training, which took place in Accra recently, was part of the GMA�s preparations towards the incidence of the Ebola hemorrhagic fever in the borders of the country.
It was also to address the anxieties of health workers about the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD).
According to the GMA Accra Regional Chairman, Dr. Ernest Yorke, the Ebola scourge had also affected and claimed the lives of some healthcare givers who were trying to rescue the situation.
He said even though Ghana has not yet recorded any incidents of Ebola, it was important that it put in place firm plans to prevent citizens, especially health workers, from coming into contact with the virus.
Dr. Yorke, notwithstanding the health risk GMA members are likely to be exposed to, urged the government to intensify public education and awareness creation, and provide more screening equipment and facilities to detect possible Ebola cases at the borders.
He charged the government to ensure the protection of the GMA members, since the country is already having a huge deficit of health workers.
He pointed out that Personal Protection Equipment (PPEs) in the country were not enough to aid health workers to adequately manage cases successfully without risking the lives of frontline workers, and ultimately, the general public.
�We are hereby, urging the government and Ministry of Health, as a matter of urgency, [to] procure enough PPEs to enhance our state of preparedness,� he appealed.
As part of the government�s early plans to save the situation in the country, about 10,000 PPEs were to be procured alongside three centres to be built in the southern, middle and northern zones of Ghana.
The GMA Accra Chairman, not satisfied with the approach of the government, pleaded for frontline training to boost their preparedness and confidence in handling patients in case of an outbreak, saying, �This will prevent the situation where some unprepared healthcare workers would abandon posts if and when there is an outbreak.�
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