Time to improve emergency response units
Now politicians everywhere are the same and I don't doubt the truthfulness of this assertion, so for systems to be working elsewhere implies that something else must have caused them to overstep their usual furtive stance to implement policies that benefit the masses.
Advertisement
How come well-attended ambulances, well-equipped hospitals and well-trained personnel are available even to the commonest of the commons elsewhere?
It is because civil society is up and doing with regards to asking the right questions and demanding answers in these societies.
I don't believe Africans cannot manage our problems, neither do I believe that the situation is beyond salvage. Our improvising ability is legendary but do we have to re-invent the wheel every time?
Why can't we learn from the blueprints from those who have gone through it? Interestingly, when it gets to exacting things from the masses, be it taxes or fees, we are very good at implementing blueprints from elsewhere.
To me, it only smacks of deliberate selective dyslexia, something that can be amenable to people demanding nothing less than ideal. I firmly believe that with proper accountability, we should be able to make quality health care accessible to all, including the lowliest of Ghanaians.
Yesterday, it was the demise of former president Atta Mills. Today, it is P.V. Obeng and because they are high profiled, they get to be highlighted. What goes unhighlighted are numerous preventable deaths that occur daily in our homes and hospitals.
On hourly basis, sick people in need of medical attention get tossed from one hospital to another simply because there are no beds to nurse them on - the so-called "no bed syndrome."
Other Trending Stories
I don't need to mention the ever common sight of mothers welcoming their newborns into this world being nursed on the floor - you are far too familiar with it!
During heart attacks and other medical emergencies, the earliest the intervention, so-called golden minutes, the better the survival. It is possible to intervene medically if we have well-equipped and well-trained paramedics manning our ambulances.
The same holds for well-trained, well-equipped and motivated staffs at our hospitals. What is the point spending countless hours and energy resuscitating someone if there will be no bed, defibrillator, emergency drugs or ventilators in the hospitals to consolidate the gains?
This defeatist notion of "we don't have the money to establish these systems or we need to seek donor funds” should stop! We have simply not prioritised health.
Political appointments doubling over themselves make the media daily. So much money is spent on political appointees who loll daily at their offices while there is a freeze on appointment of health workers whose ratio is far from reasonable much less ideal.
We still have one nurse attending to 20 babies in an intensive care unit (instead of one to three ratio at worst) and yet well-trained nurses are staying at home because we don't see the need to employ them. There is so much money spent on foppish ventures and endeavours simply because of the well-known-but-never-mentioned 10 per cent reward.
I won't talk about the waste reported daily by the media, there simply will be no time. But I cannot help remarking that a fraction of the various judgement debts paid in lieu of reckless and vindictive stance adopted by those tasked to manage our economy, if channelled into the health sector could have transformed our health system and saved a lot more innocent lives.
The vibrant and efficient health systems in the advanced world, the favourite destination of our leaders, did not come by chance. It was carefully and meticulously planned, agitated for largely by civil society.
Let us not miss the opportunity to interrogate the circumstances surrounding the unfortunate demise of these high profile individuals, even more importantly, let us immortalise these moments by ensuring that the lapses that led to these deaths are plugged.
Time and again, it is proven that even with the world at your beck and call, you still need the first few minutes of the emergency to be well-managed before jetting off to the well-resourced advanced worlds, and what better surety than to improve our own emergency response units?
I hold the view that our quest to pursue policies deemed beneficial is fantastic but to do that at the expense of health, in my opinion, is akin to attacking the very core of human rights and must not be countenanced.
I hope we all awaken to this reality and demand improvement to our health system. If health indeed is a right and not a privilege, then there is certainly no room for mediocrity.
Advertisement