Director of Health at Tema Port calls for help with health boats

Lack of health boats at the various ports is hampering the work of health staff, Mr. Raphael John Marfo has said.

The Director of Port with the Ghana Health Service in-charge of the Tema Port who made the observation, said health staff always rely on private companies to perform duties at the various ports.

The Director made the observation on Tuesday, February 23 in an interview on Onua TV’s Maakye hosted by Afia Tagor.

“The Ghana Health Service does not have a health boat vessel on its own so we rely on those who have it but port health must have its own health boat that works 24hours,” he explained.

He said: “This is hampering our work. Another challenge is staffing…we are woefully inadequate. It’s not only at Tema Port but the whole country. Ghana has 42 entry points. Only 18 have port health staff and staff are inadequate because port health must do early detection.”

“The staff do not have training on the sea and at certain points in time, the sea is rough.”

Mr. Marfo noted that “we need a means of transport that will convey staff to and from work. We need health boats of our own”.

He further said “port is not a hospital, the airport is not a hospital, so you don’t send nurses there. You place them at vantage points so that you need them, you recall them”.

“We need clearance for the government in the 2021 budget to employ more health staff.”

COVID-19 lockdown

Commenting on what COVID-19 did to the port health sector, Mr. Marfo revealed that “with the COVID-19, we disinfected every ship that comes to our shores”.

He said “two weeks ago, a vessel came from Ukraine with three Russians having the Covid, so we took them for treatments and we disinfected the vessel”.