GNFS inaugurates medical centre
The Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) has inaugurated its medical centre to cater for the primary health needs of its personnel and their families.
Advertisement
At a ceremony to inaugurate the facility, the Chief Fire Officer, Dr Albert Brown Gaisie, said the health care of the personnel of the service was an issue of major concern.
He said firefighters were usually exposed to many environmental hazards such as inhalation of smoke and all manner of toxics.
The situation, he said, usually affected the health of firemen and women negatively, resulting in terminal diseases such as kidney infections and heart problem when they were aging.
According to Dr Gaisie, the command of the service had over the past supported firemen and women to treat such diseases by paying their medical bills from the limited resources of the service.
He also expressed the concern that personnel of the service were not insured despite the dangerous nature of their job.
Following a massive health screening last year which revealed lots of serious diseases among the personnel, he said the service decided to convert its medical post into a medical centre to enable it to better take care of the personnel.
The fire service medical centre.
Future plans
He added that plans were also underway to open a medical centre in Kumasi to address the healthcare needs of the personnel and their families.
Considering the dangers associated with firefighting, he said the vision of the service was to establish a fully fledged hospital in the future.
He commended local pharmaceutical companies that supported in the refurbishment of the medical centre.
The Minister of the Interior, Mr Prosper Bani, in his address, commended the service for renovating the medical post.
Fire educators
In a related development, the first batch of the community fire educators, trained to assist the GNFS, has passed out.
The training formed part of the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) initiative to train some youth to assist the police, the prisons and the fire services. Five hundred trainees from the Brong Ahafo, Eastern and the Greater Accra regions passed out after three weeks’ training in fire safety, fire communication, fire drills, among other such skills.
The beneficiaries are expected to be deployed to outstations of the service within the country.