Kumasi, July 12, GNA - Mrs Mercy Winifred Bonsu, Deputy Ashanti Regional Director of Nursing Service, has called on practising nurses to accept postings to rural and deprived communities in the country. She said if they refused to do so and decided to stay in the cities, the people would come to them with more health complications that would be difficult for them to manage and treat.

Mrs Bonsu was speaking at the Third Graduation ceremony of 12 students of Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) Nursing School at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi on Wednesday. She said, "It is when they go to the rural communities that they can identify the health problems of the people and give the necessary advice with the skills they had acquired, but if they chose to stay in the health institutions, their professional experiences would not benefit rural people.

Dr Joseph Opoku-Buabeng, Consultant and ENT Surgeon at KATH, said the school established in 2005 had so far trained 46 specialised nurses in ENT.

He said the Ministry of Health in conjunction with the Ghana Health Service (GHS) had embarked on a lot of programmes designed to furnish every regional and district hospitals with specialized health personnel. Dr Opoku-Buabeng indicated that with the trend and the rate at which ENT students were being trained, it was expected that there would be at least one specialized ENT nurse in every regional and district hospital, besides the teaching hospitals by the year 2008.

He said the brain drain within the health sector had taken a heavy toll on the delivery of health services and urged the graduates to stay and help in the delivery of quality care to Ghanaians.

Dr Kofi Asare, Ashanti Regional Director of the Ghana Health Services, urged the graduates to be prepared to work to help patients to alleviate their sufferings.

He urged them not to restrict themselves to ENT treatment alone but should endeavour to help in all sectors of health delivery as professional nurses.

Dr Asare called for proper co-ordination between health training institutions and the service delivery, so that the sector could move forward.

He urged the graduates to take interest in health outreach programmes in the communities and not to remain in the hospitals for patients to come to them.

Alhaji Abdul Shaban, a tutor of the school and Course Co-ordinator, stressed the need for the provision of accommodation for students, independent financial administration, a secretary and an accountant for the school.