Accra, Nov. 3, GNA - Professor Agyeman Badu Akosah, Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), on Wednesday urged the Ministry of Health (MOH) to take the necessary steps to issue certificates to students of Nursing and Medical Laboratory Schools who had completed their Diploma programmes.

He said it was the responsibility of the MOH to have ensured that the Nursing Training and the Medical Laboratory Schools satisfied the necessary requirements by the National Accreditation Board before subjecting the students to the discipline and cost for a diploma programme.

"As long as the students have gone through that course of instruction and have paid for it, they must be issued with their diploma certificates," he said.

Prof. Akosah was speaking to journalists at a press conference to mark the beginning of activities for the celebration of the GHS month under the theme: "Healthy Lifestyle, Healthy Living". He said even though GHS staff trained students of almost all the health academic institutions, their certification, postings and remuneration, were the responsibility of the MOH.

The D-G said the GHS had suggested several times that all health academic institutions, especially the Nursing Training Schools, should be regionalized and put under one principal and all regional directors of health facilities could be used as visiting lecturers.

"That way the National Accreditation Board's requirement for a certain number of lecturers of a certain calibre for accrediting a school for a diploma programme would have been met easily. "But the MOH has paid no attention to this suggestion because it would mean the administration of the schools would now become the prerogative of the GHS instead of the MOH."

Prof. Akosah said such lackadaisical way of handling issues concerning health workers and students contributed to the continuous dwindling of the health workforce through mass exodus. "If you spend money to train health professionals and refuse to accord them the respect and remuneration they deserve, believe me, they will always leave for the West to seek greener pastures," he said. "It is the responsibility of the Government and the Government alone to ensure that health workers feel comfortable working in this country."

Prof. Akosah also touched on the recent cholera outbreak and said Ghana had no business building Cholera Units in the various health facilities as if cholera was an acceptable disease. What was needed was the creation of good environmental sanitation as the only way of killing the disease. 03 Nov. 05