FIRST LADY COMMENDS HEALTH PROFESSIONALS FOR SUSTAINING GAINS OF MDG 5

First Lady Mrs. Lordina Mahama has commended Health professionals across the country for their efforts at sustaining the gains of the Millennium Development Goal 5 that is reducing maternal morbidity and mortality beyond 2015.

 Speaking at the 10th Anniversary durbar of the Nursing and Midwifery Training College at Keta in the Volta region, Mrs. Mahama noted that no woman must die during childbirth hence she is very excited by the dedication and hardworking of health professionals to save every child and mother during delivering.

“I feel so sad whenever I hear a woman has died while fulfilling our divine ordained duty of childbirth. But we must celebrate our success stories. I was very encouraged when I learnt that that no woman died during labour last year at the District hospital in Nadowli’’ she stated.

The First Lady mentioned bleeding, infection; difficult labour, anaemia and pregnancy induced hypertension, though preventable, as major causes of maternal mortality.

‘The Other factors such as delays in seeking health care, delay in reaching the health centre and delay in getting healthcare services are equally easily resolvable’’ the First Lady emphasized.

Touching on the theme for the occasion; “Quality Nursing and Midwifery Education, a Pre-requisite for Improved Healthcare Delivery”, the First Lady stated that Government’s commitment to expand existing Nursing and Midwifery training colleges even as new ones continue to be established is to create more spaces for more students to be admitted into these schools.

This she said will ultimately raise the quality of teaching and learning in colleges and when more nurses and midwives are trained, it will reduce workload on staff in health facilities, ultimately raising quality healthcare delivery to a new level as planned by the government.

‘Beyond the provision of infrastructure and retooling of our hospitals, government hopes it will raise the level of quality healthcare delivery to meet international standards thereby, not only serving Ghanaians, but also making Ghana hub for quality medical care in West Africa., which can be a significant source of foreign exchange to boost our economy’’ the First Lady explained.

Mrs. Mahama noted that in as much as government is investing in the health center, health professionals and students nurses must emulate Florence Nightingale, a nurse who in the 19^th century led a team of nurses to give care to soldiers wounded in Crimea although the condition in which they worked was terrible.

The First Lady entreated the students to imbibe a culture of discipline and patriotism.  She also encourage the people in communities to avail themselves of the services available in CHIPS compounds, clinics, polyclinics and hospitals by going for regular check-ups adding that with regular health screening, any diseases that are detected early can be cured.

Principal of the Training College, Charity Kartey said the Nursing and Midwifery Training School since its establishment in 2006 has turned out 935 Nurse Assistant Clinical who are working as enrolled nurses in various Health facilities in Ghana especially in the Volta Region. Mrs Kartey announced that the school intends to take some actions aimed at moving the school forward. These include maintaining the high pass rate in academic and Licensure Examination, complete a Hostel Project to accommodate more students and appeal for more tutors to be posted to the school.

For his part the health Minister Alex Segbefia noted that recognising that desired high nursing and midwifery care are achieved when adequate resources are invested in the training of students, government will endeavour to make resources available to improve infrastructure to provide adequate materials and personnel for the training of all health professionals. He stated that at the time the Nursing and Midwifery Training College was formed in 2006, there were 24 nursing and midwifery schools but currently under the NDC government the number has increased to 96 out of which 10 are private.