GRNMA urges government to designate more health-centres for coronavirus treatment

The Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA) has called on government to designate more centres in each belt for coronavirus treatment.

Government could also reactivate the Ebola Centres across the country in the event of an outbreak of the virus in Ghana.

The GRNMA, with the largest cadre of healthcare providers in Ghana, commended the Ministry of Health and its agencies for designating Tema General and Ridge hospitals as possible treatment centres.

A statement from the Association, copied to the Ghana News Agency on Saturday, however, said the two centres were inadequate since they were centered only in the lower belt and urged government to designate more around the country.

It called on the Ministry of Health and its agencies to provide the necessary logistics and training for all healthcare workers, especially nurses and midwives, who serve as frontline healthcare providers, to prevent any needless fatalities in an event of the deadly disease outbreak.

The GRNMA also called on all nurses and midwives to be on the alert to identify any such case and apply the highest degree of Infection Prevention and Control in handling it.

It called upon the Immigration Service and Port Health officials to adopt strategies to ward off or quarantine suspected travellers, especially those from countries with reported and confirmed cases.

The Association encouraged the citizenry to remain calm in the face of a possible outbreak in the Sub-Region and even Ghana adding; “We wish to state that GRNMA is committed to supporting global, national and coordinated efforts to identify, manage, contain and prevent the spread of the virus”.

It said the virus, since its outbreak in Wuhan, China, on December 31, 2019, had killed 213 people and had found its way into 22 different countries leading to the World Health Organisation declaring it as a Global Health Emergency.