There is a raging debate about whether the health system in the country is ready or not to contain a case ( or cases) of Ebola in the unfortunate-but-expected event that the virus entered the country. The Ministry of Health has said that adequate measures have been put in place with the construction of an isolation and care facility in Tema, and on-going construction of holding centers in other parts of the country. It is also pointing to fever-screening with thermal scanners at the Kotoka International Airport, and fever-screening with less sophisticated gadgets at other entry points. A quantity of personal protective equipment have also been imported. With these measures, the Ministry, with the backing of its technical heads are convinced the country is reasonably prepared to meet the challenge. Health professionals, particularly the Ghana Medical Association on the other hand are not impressed. They see inadequacy in the measures so far taken and fear the worst for the country in the event of an outbreak. The tango has been raging in the media. While the tango is not particularly surprising given the near perpetual frosty relationship between govt and its health workers, it nevertheless exposes our continued resort to emotional persuasions in our handling of serious national issues. That we are ready or not ready to contain Ebola is not an abstract science. It does not lend to subjectiveness unless there is a plain attempt to play to the gallery. We are capable of using objective measures to assess the extent to which the country has been prepared. Let the discourse be infused with objective measures like: How many out of our front line health workers have received training or undergone simulations exercises? How many of our regional, district and subdistrict health facilities have received at least one set of PPE? And how many have two sets? How many of our border post officials have participated in simulations exercises? How many of the border post officials and detailed health workers are aware of the number to call in case of emergency? How many isolation centers are considered adequate? And out of that number how many have been constructed? We should move discussions on serious national issues like this from subjective to objective measures! That is the way we can be sincere in dealing with each other. This is also the way we can sincerely measure and communicate the progress we are making in our readiness. Anything short of that and we will just be TALKING!! Just Talking!! Till it is too late...
Posted on: Wed, 15 Oct 2014 10:12:43 +0000
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