Ghana will need 30,000 nurses if the country's health services is to run efficiently.Nana Pady Acheampong, Deputy Minister of Health said this during a discussion at a meeting on the health sector reforms in Accra yesterday.

The consensus building meeting was organised for nurses to examine the implications of the reforms on the role of nurses.Nana Acheampong said currently, the country has only 10,000 nurses manning health facilities all over the country and urged the nursing training institutions to find ways of increasing the number of nurses that pass out of their institutions. He said nurses should examine the management issues which prevent them from putting into effective use, the provisions made to make service available to all.

He expressed the ministry's concern about nurses who show uncaring attitude towards patients and sometimes treat emergency cases casually.Nana Acheampong said, while this may be as a result of low staff and technical problems, the issue of complete negligence cannot be ruled out entirely.

He pointed out that performance orientation and consideration of patients needs, will be important benchmarks for assessment under the health reforms.

The deputy minister reiterated that government has taken measures to ensure that financial issues do not constitute a hindrance to poor patients.

It therefore behoves on nurses as frontline workers to ensure that those who are exempted from paying for health services are provided with the required services, he said.

Madam Rose Akita, Acting Chief Nursing Officer, said the reforms being pursued by the health sector aims at improving the overall performance of the sector.

She pointed out that since nurses form about a third of the total work force in the sector, the reforms will be accelerated if they fully understand them.

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