TUC boss backs health workers who ignore Ebola patients

Secretary General of the Ghana Trades Union Congress (TUC) Dr Kofi Asamoah has expressed support for health workers who refuse to take care of suspected Ebola patients for fear of contracting the disease.

Reports on Wednesday suggested that some health workers at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) refused to take care of a suspected Ebola patient by taking to their heels.

“Why wouldn’t they run away if [they] don’t have the protective gadgets, if [they] don’t have what can protects one as an individual?” Dr Asamoah asked on Wednesday at a forum by the Health Service Workers Union (HSWU) of the TUC in Accra.

The forum was aimed at mapping out strategies to deal with the deadly virus in case of an outbreak.

Dr Asamoah called on government to procure more protective equipment for workers in the health sector to ensure their preparedness to deal with the disease, which has so far claimed over 600 lives in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria.

“So, I think it brings to mind the whole question about the country and the way we train our personnel be it medical or health to be able to combat emergencies and disasters,” the TUC boss observed.

The Minister of Health, Dr Kwaku Agyemang-Mensah, on Thursday, July 31 assured Ghanaians that government has procured 1,400 protective equipment for health workers and has taken steps to intensify education on the disease as part of measures to prepare the country in the face of an outbreak.

Chairman of the health workers union, Reverend Richard Yeboah, asked government to extend the measures to include insulation of health workers as their neglect by governments in affected West African countries has been a disincentive to those in Ghana.

“What is happening in our neighbouring countries where health workers are dying, and their various governments are not doing anything about it, then you and I who have families and also have relatives will not run away but stay?”

The health workers agreed government must strengthen surveillance at the country’s borders.