Health News of Friday, 16 December 2005

Source: GNA

Nurses call for distribution of drugs to health posts

Begoro, Dec.16, GNA- The Eastern Regional branch of the Association of Community Health Nurses (ACHN) has called on the Ministry of Health to distribute new drugs in the system to health posts and halt equipping chemical shops with those drugs.

The nurses, who made the call at a meeting at Begoro on Friday, complained that new drugs like artesunate/ armodiaquine, which had replaced chloroquine in the treatment of malaria, had found their way to chemical shops rather than the health centres.

The Fanteakwa District Director of Health Services, Dr. Fredrick Kwame Ofosu, asked the nurses to cultivate the habit of reading health magazines to be abreast with new technology in the health sector. He expressed concern that some diseases, which had been considered eradicated had resurfaced recently and urged the nurses to help eradicate them.

Dr Ofosu said the Ghana Health Service would now shift resources from hospitals to the community level to enable the community health nurses to operate effectively.

The Deputy Director of Nursing Services, Mrs Mary Nartey, asked nurses to have regular medical check-up since they were all at risk. The regional chairperson of the association, Ms Magdalene Debrah, asked the nurses to work hard to help develop the health sector.