Dr Titus Beyou, Deputy General Secretary and Member of Infectious Diseases Committee of the Ghana Medical Association says information being provided by the government on Covid-19 should inspire confidence among health workers and the public.
Dr Titus Beyou said the government should start the zoning approach as advised by the Ghana Medical Association where the needed experts and equipment will be sent to the various regional hospitals to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
Sharing his views on the ways to deal with the Covid-19, he said when steps are being taken to equip health facilities same should be communicated because if not it will not inspire confidence among the health professionals.
According to him, the health professionals should be aware that in case of respiratory distress there is ventilator if not at their facility but the regional facility to deal with the case.
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“The information should be more rapid but I think as we delve down regional and district level we can not rely on a few treatment centres and as it stands now looks like our preparation is very helpful for mild cases when we get to the severe level when people need ventilators we are not ready..”
On issues of funding, Dr Titus Beyou advised that the central funding alone will not be enough for the Covid-19 fight at the regional and district levels.
He noted that the NHIS should pay all the health facilities they owe for them to equip themselves internally for detection and containment exercises.
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“All our government facilities are in debt from the National Health Insurance, are we going to have these 100 million dollars going to these facilities for them to be able to take initiative? if we want a systemic solution to this NHIS should pay facilities..”
