Treat all patients equally - Minister

Wa, March 20, GNA - Mr Mahmud Khalid, Upper West Regional Minister has advised health workers to give equal and quality care to all patients without discrimination. "Don't let us label patients before we treat them. That practice is against the rights of the patient and therefore cannot be said to be justifiable". Mr. Khalid gave the advice when he interacted with health workers at the Wa Regional Hospital as part of his familiarisation visit to public institutions in the Wa Municipality on Thursday. The visit was to offer him the opportunity to have first hand information about the challenges facing the institutions with the view to helping to address them. Mr. Khalid urged nurses to be tolerant to the sick. "Let us show compassion, love and humility to our patients in our quest to treat them". He appealed to the regional health directorate to adopt collaborative approaches with other government institutions to develop best practices to benefit the people. Mr. Khalid appealed to the few doctors working at the hospital to talk to their colleagues elsewhere to accept posting to the region. The Wa Regional Hospital which has 189 beds, is manned by four Ghanaian doctors, six Cuban doctors, 100 nurses and 130 paramedics.