MoE says it is taking steps to modernize biomedical engineering courses
AM News with Benjamin Akakpo on JoyNews (22-9-23)
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Transcript
00:00 Welcome to the News Belt of the show. In our first story, some youth in the
00:05 Naduli-Kaliu district are protesting what they describe as gross mismanagement
00:09 of the district hospital by some core staff of that facility. They say the
00:14 facility lacks basic logistics to take care of the medical needs of the people.
00:19 They have therefore petitioned the Ghana Health Service to investigate the issues
00:23 to restore the hospital to its former glory.
00:26 Rafik Salam reports from Naduli. The youth group drawn from all parts of the
00:32 Naduli-Kaliu district first converge at the forecourt of the Naduli Area Council
00:37 before they kick-started a peaceful demonstration. They are unhappy with what
00:42 they called gross mismanagement of the district hospital by some core staff.
00:47 Because anything you want, you cannot get it for now. When you go there for dispensary, they will tell you, they will write the medicine.
00:55 As a patient, I will show it to you. And when they have four different types of drugs, they tell me to go to pharmacies and buy.
01:05 Nothing was given to me. Even common treatment, they will refer you to any place that you can go and do your own thing. And they are there. What kind of life is that?
01:15 Man, you, this is the first time youth in the district have collectively come together to demonstrate against any government establishment.
01:24 Since the creation of the district some 35 years ago, they have built a major highway, otherwise known as N-12 highway,
01:32 that passes through the Naduli Township, singing and dancing to music from brass band.
01:39 They also have a police presence to ensure that nothing untoward happened during the course of the demonstration.
01:46 All went well right from the start of the demonstration until they got closer to the main gate of the hospital and they demanded an entry into the facility,
01:57 which the police fiercely resisted. Entry to the facility was not part of the route for the demonstrators.
02:04 An argument ensued for over half an hour between the protesters and the police until the latter softened his stance and allowed them to come closer to the gate of the hospital.
02:15 They later headed to the Makoy College of Education Park, passed through the forecourt of the Ndulukeleo District Assembly and ended at the Ndulukeleo District Directorate of Health Services.
02:27 It was here that their petition was read by the secretary of the Kinsen Youth Group, Prince Sabogo.
02:34 The Ndulukeleo District Hospital is in life support due to gross mismanagement which led to the lack of basic logistics,
02:41 including gloves, even common plasters and paracetamol among other essentials in the hospital, inflating the cost of the male ward that was renovated.
02:51 The recent visit of the health insurance CEO, Dr. Okobo, to the hospital, the district health administrator and management said the hospital spent an amount of N87,000 to renovate the male ward,
03:05 while in a different meeting with the staff, they said they spent N127,000 to renovate the male ward and we want proper accountability.
03:14 Management is still fueling parked vehicles that were spoiled some years back, using our mega resources for their selfish interests.
03:22 And how can a damaged vehicle still draw fuel from the public purse?
03:26 We are demanding access from the core management of the hospital.
03:29 The Ndulukeleo District Hospital that aid in promoting quality health to its people are providing accommodation to some core management of the hospital,
03:38 but how do you see some of them sleeping there, but rather commute from work every day, resulting in low productivity?
03:45 And also using the limited hospital resources at the expense of basic essentials.
03:49 They spoke of deep-seated grift among some critical staff of the hospital and also accused some management staff of the hospital of awarding contracts to themselves amounting to conflict of interest.
04:01 They called on the Director General of the Ghana Health Service, Parliamentary Select Committee on Health and other duty-bearers to ask the Medical Agency to shake up the hospital, to restore the hospital to its past glory.
04:13 We are about this demonstrative to register our displeasure, thereby calling on the High Office of the Director General of the Ghana Health Service, Parliamentary Select Committee on Health,
04:22 Upper West Regional Minister, Regional Director of Health Services and the District Director of Health and other key stakeholders in this matter to immediately shake up the seven core management staff at the hospital,
04:34 to prevent the total burial of our once Upper West Golden Goon, which has now collapsed to a chipped compound.
04:41 The petitioners are ever ready to use any other legal means to ensure that our legitimate demands are met after two weeks.
04:50 If there is no positive response from authorities concerned, we will first move into the hospital and lock the administrator and continue from there.
05:01 Head of Finance at the Ndunu District Director of Health, Francisco Dung, received a petition on behalf of the District Director of Health Services for onward delivery to the Director General of the Ghana Health Services.
05:14 Reporting for GUE News, Rafid Salaam, Ndunu.
05:21 Now, members of the Private Health Facilities Association of Ghana want government to post health professionals to their facilities to end the recent migration of nurses out of the country to see greener pastures.
05:34 Chairman of the regional chapter, Emmanuel Babakwesi, who was speaking at the launch of the association's annual general conference in Tichiman, said the group's inability to employ health care professionals was adversely affecting health care delivery across the country.
05:48 Correspondent, Anas Sabit, now reports.
05:52 Members of the Private Health Facilities Association of Ghana believe that the difficulties private health providers go through in their quest to attract well-trained nurses to work at their facilities is largely impacting negatively on the quality of health care delivery across the country.
06:08 Speaking in Tichiman at the launch of the association's annual general conference, scheduled to be held in Sunyane in November this year, President of the Brunei Hafo Regional Chapter of the group, Emmanuel Babakwesi, bemoaned the struggles private health facilities go through in getting the services of health care professionals.
06:27 The major problem facing private health providers is that we are not getting the health professionals to employ them. That means that we are getting difficult to get staff to employ. But if you look at the number of staff they require from you before they can license you as a health facility, it is really difficult.
06:43 So what we are saying is that, look, private health facilities is not different from Ghana Health Services. It's not different from Christian Health Association of Ghana. But these two, the government gives the health professionals, they post staff to them. Why are we left out?
06:57 The private man pays tax, yet he doesn't benefit anything from the taxes we pay. So what we are saying is that, these members of the private health facilities association, they are providing health services to us. And a Ghanaian is a Ghanaian. It doesn't matter whether he goes for health care services in the private health care sector or he does so at the Ghana Health Services or CHAG.
07:17 So, please, government should look at how he can post staff to our facilities. Even if it demands that we contribute, that is from our side or the government side, to pay the remuneration of such professionals.
07:30 Mr. Emmanuel Babakwesi believes that a move to post nurses and other health professionals to private health facilities would go a long way to minimize unemployment, breed competition as well as reduce the recent craze for greener pastures by health care professionals.
07:46 We have a lot of nurses sitting in the house. We have a lot of physician assistants sitting in the house. The doctors, I can't say so much. So what we are saying is that we can start from somewhere. It is definitely going to be a gradual process.
08:00 Even if government begins by now to say, look, we can support you with nurses. Even if it is five, five nurses for every private health facility in the country. I'm sure the nurses we have in the system, even though the majority of them are actually migrating for greener pastures elsewhere, the few ones available, we can still get a small quota.
08:15 You see, if government begins to post some of them to our places, I can assure you that, look, there will be a time that the competition will be very great, that people will feel motivated and will want to stay in their country and work for their citizens.
08:30 They are however enthused about the improvement in the reimbursement of NHIA claims by service providers, but call for a review of tariffs to prevent the collapse of some private health facilities.
08:42 I want to put on record that again, that there have been significant improvement with regards to the reimbursement of NHIA claims. So we say thumbs ups to the CEO, the chief executive officer of the National Health Insurance Authority.
08:57 Apart from that, one major challenge is still pending, which we believe the scheme is probably working towards it. That is the tariffs. The tariffs are not significant enough. They are not, it's not enough.
09:10 Because for instance, I ask this question somewhere that a profit making service provider like myself, I go to the market to buy let's say a malaria drug at two Ghana, let's say five Ghana cities, but I'm supposed to dispense it for let's say two or three Ghana cities.
09:27 And the big question in this case is who pays the difference? Is it a provider? Is it the NHIA or is it a card bearer?
09:34 The association since its establishment has contributed towards solving major challenges bedeviling the operations of member health care providers across the country.
09:45 Alassabit, Joy News, Tichiman.
09:53 Staying on health, the Ministry of Health is saying it is taking the needed steps to modernize biomedical engineering courses in two public universities in the country, the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and the University of Ghana.
10:07 The move is a joint effort by the Ministry of Health, the German Agency for International Cooperation and German medical service providers with funding from develop PPP.
10:19 Head of the University of Ghana's Department of Biomedical Engineering, Professor Elsie Fakaufman underscored the need for students to take full advantage of the opportunity the project offered.
10:31 In biomedical engineers for Ghana, it's an initiative launched to enhance health care delivery in the country by improving the skills of biomedical engineering graduates and professionals.
10:47 The project recommends revising and enriching the curricula of research institutions to incorporate a greater emphasis on practical content, whilst providing training for lecturers and lab technicians to effectively implement these practical modules.
11:05 Dr. Ibo Hamond, the Director of Health Administration and Support Services at the Ghana Health Service, emphasized the project's significance in contributing to the attainment of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3.
11:21 The challenge that we have had with the training of biomedical engineers is that it's been more of classroom training, even though they have some equipment but not the state of the art equipment.
11:32 So you have cases where the students come out but you can see that practically they are deficient.
11:40 So this partnership is from the German government through GIZ. It's supposed to change the curriculum of the universities. So it means that we are trying to solve the problem from the top and infuse a lot of practice into it.
11:56 Because in the medical field it's more about practice, cutting human beings and others by pattern. So you need to know how to do the things, not just only in the mind but also on the hands.
12:10 We realized that until this time most of the medical engineers will go to the four year program without even stepping in the hospital. But the majority of them end up working in the hospital.
12:22 Even if they don't work in the hospital, they work in health related environments. So they must really know what it is. Because there are a lot of new medical equipment that is coming which are computerized and digital in the form.
12:38 Speaking about the expatration of medics, head of the biomedical engineering unit at the Ministry of Health, Dr. Nicholas Ejabu says the move is not bad in its entirety. Instead it poses as a positive influence to the remaining nurses to work with international standards.
13:03 Certainly it's a push and pull practice. But if more are trained, those who will go out will definitely develop themselves further. There are some remittances that also come.
13:20 Some of these things is because Ghanaians who have traveled outside, interacted with companies, they see the potential in the Ghanaian youth. Give them the confidence that something like this can be done in Ghana to support them.
13:42 So instead of losing the talents we have, they are here to enhance. And once that is done, if the opportunity exists, certainly those who pass out from our schools would like to stay.
13:59 Because you can do what you want to do. And not that you only go outside to see and have the experience with what you actually want to do.
14:13 Head of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Ghana, Professor Elsie Ifakofman says the project will be beneficial if students take due advantage of the initiative.
14:28 I hope the students who are currently the beneficiaries are going to appreciate this opportunity to improve what we already do. In fact, biomedical engineering is a very broad discipline, a very wide scope.
14:42 Not all biomedical engineers become clinical engineers. The clinical engineers are a subset that work in our hospitals on medical devices in the hospitals.
14:52 These are the ones that are going to benefit the most. So the students who decide to become clinical engineers should take advantage of the training that is going to be made available to them.
15:03 They should see this as an opportunity to do even better than what their predecessors have done.
15:10 Now, the Member of Parliament for Tamale North, Alhassan Suwini, has come to the rescue of the Tamale Central Hospital after the Ministry of Health failed to clear a piece of land for the construction of the new hospital facility project.
15:24 The governments of Japan and Ghana had signed an agreement for a grant by the Japanese government to upgrade the Tamale Central Hospital into an ultra-modern facility.
15:35 As part of the agreement, the government of Ghana was supposed to clear the land for the sod to be cut in October for work to commence on the hospital.
15:43 But with a few weeks to the construction to commence, the ministry is yet to respond to their part of the agreement. Martina Bugri now reports.
15:52 The Tamale Central Hospital is the oldest government hospital in northern Ghana established in 1920.
15:59 The hospital, also known as the Regional Hospital, currently provides primary health care service to a catchment population of more than 35,000 people within the Tamale metropolis and adjoining districts.
16:13 The 15 million-grant hospital project, when completed, is expected to push the hospital to a fully-fledged regional hospital which will provide secondary health care service.
16:24 According to joint news, the deadline for the clearing of the land was supposed to be in June and sod cutting to be done in October for work to commence.
16:34 But the ministry is yet to respond to the clearing of the site, with just a few weeks for the timeline for the construction to begin.
16:43 This joint news source said it forced the authorities to seek for help from other donors, with the MP for Tamale North coming to the rescue of the hospital.
16:53 When joint news contacted the Northern Regional Health Director, Dr. Brima Baba, he said the regional health service was only copied on the project, therefore he is unable to comment.
17:06 At the hospital, the medical superintendent also declined commenting. For joint news, Martina Bugri reporting.
17:19 In our next story, the Open Forum on Agriculture Biotechnology has engaged women farmers who are into cowpea production.
17:27 The engagement was to educate the women farmers ahead of the commercialization of the BT cowpea.
17:35 Now, the BT cowpea will control the Maruka pest, which continues to ravage cowpea.
17:40 Here's another report put together by Martina Bugri.
17:43 The Open Biotechnology established and manages a wide range of platforms to enhance understanding of biotechnology in agriculture for productivity.
17:55 The Forum also contributes in informing policy decision-making process on matters of agriculture biotechnology through the provision of factual, well-researched and scientific information.
18:09 As part of its activities, the Open Forum on Agriculture Biotechnology held an outreach to educate women farmers who grow cowpea.
18:18 Speaking to the media, research scientist with the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission, Dr. Daniel Osei-Ofusu, said the issue of Maruka insect pest would be addressed with the introduction of the BT cowpea.
18:34 We have found this ingenious way using a new modern tool called genetic engineering that enables us to overcome that challenge that the farmers have.
18:46 As you heard from the session, they were worried with the number of sprays that they have to apply to their crops over the growing season.
18:59 Cowpea grows in 70-80 days maximum and if you have to spray about 8 times within that time, and that's even the average, it tells you that a lot of chemicals are being put on this very important crop.
19:15 With this new technology, the farmers only need to spray twice to take care of other insects.
19:21 The main insect that worries them, which is the Maruka, has been controlled using the technology.
19:29 And the reaction is very welcoming because they know the challenges they face.
19:34 Scientists at the CSIR, Dr. Richard Ampedu-Ameal, said the outreach was to help address issues of misinformation on the new technology.
19:47 We started to come here to have direct chats with them about the new seed of cowpea that we are introducing into the system.
19:59 We don't want them to go for the information from elsewhere.
20:04 We know what is going on, people are going around and they don't know anything about the technology.
20:09 They are talking about the technology and they are misinforming the people.
20:13 It's a problem for us because it's a technology. We have to go and practice exactly as we have been taught or as the experts have told us.
20:21 Because if you do anything apart from what the experts have told you, it will create problems for you.
20:27 You will not get the yield that you are expected to get.
20:32 Some of the cowpea farmers spoke to the media.
20:38 They have shown us the insects and how they operate.
20:45 And I think it's an eye-opener.
20:48 All we have been doing is just to spray.
20:51 Sometimes we can spray from six to ten times.
20:54 At the end of the harvest, there is nothing to show for the excess money you have put in.
21:01 We normally do not know there are some insects in the crop.
21:06 We were just cultivating the crops without knowing its benefits.
21:15 And we did not even know about the differences between the spraying, but today we have been educated about them.
21:32 It's on that agricultural notes that we kept the AM news this morning.
21:36 Stay with us. We go hard on the major issues in the newspaper review.
21:41 We'll be right back.
21:43 (Music)