32 Health facilities receive Ebola equipment
Nine thousand pieces of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) have been distributed to 32 heath facilities, institutions and directorates in parts of the country as part of protective measures against Ebola.
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The PPEs – which include overalls, disposable masks and aprons, surgical gloves and goggles as well as non-contact thermometers – cost GH¢1.5 million.
The Minister of Health, Dr Kwaku Agyeman Mensah, who is also the Chairman of the Inter-Ministerial Oversight Committee on Ebola, presented the PPEs to representatives from the beneficiary health facilities, institutions and regional health directorates.
As part of its preventive measures, the government is also installing a ‘walk through thermometer’ at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) to help screen passengers on arrival.
The facilities that received the PPEs included all the 10 regional directorates of health, all teaching hospitals in the country, the three treatment centres yet to be completed and the Christian Health Association of Ghana (CHAG).
Other beneficiaries
Others are the National Ambulance Service, the Noguchi Memorial Institute of Medical Research (NMIMR), the Police and Military hospitals, as well as some private medical facilities.
According to Dr Agyeman Mensah, although Ebola was not in Ghana, the government was working at ensuring that its citizens were adequately protected against it.
He said the distribution of the PPEs was an assurance that health facilities would be able to tackle the disease should it break anywhere.
The health minister gave an assurance that the inter-ministerial committee on Ebola, set up by the President, was working around the clock to ensure that all preventive measures against Ebola were put in place.
He said the committee was doing that through public education on the disease, ensuring that there was effective screening at the borders and other entry points, as well as putting in place an effective case management system should the disease come into the country.
The Director General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Ebenezer Appiah-Dankyira, called on the beneficiaries to remember that the PPEs were not the only effective way of protecting themselves but also through strict infection prevention methods.
He said the PPEs were essential but also there was the need to put in place other measures such as isolation centres, as well as other vigilant health checks, all of which, he said, had been put in place by the government.
In all, the government procured 10,000 PPEs out of which 500 had already been distributed to tertiary institutions and another 500 kept as backup stock.
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