Wa, April 9, GNA- The Upper West Regional branch of the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA) has appealed to individuals and organisations to make donations to health facilities in the region to fight the COVID-19 pandemic and other infectious diseases.
The Association by its mandate to uphold healthy lives and quality health care for the public by ensuring membership welfare, toured health facilities in the region in the wake of the novel COVID-19 pandemic to assess facility readiness in this fight.
The Association in an appeal for funds letter signed by Mr Lawrence Bagrmwin, the Regional Chairman and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Wa, concluded generally that health facilities in the region were not ready to fight the pandemic.
It said many of the findings were systemic and could easily be fixed by health facility management, noting however that it appeared management would not be able to single-handedly address gaps relating to Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and consumables as well as other logistics.
“These gaps mean that health facilities across the Upper West Region are not safe and may not be able to contain cases, if they occur in numbers.
“Health workers including nurses and midwives have increased risk of infections, and by default, many of our community members and clientele”, the letter stated.
It said it was against this backdrop that the Association made the appeal to individuals and organisations to support donations to enable members to render timely and quality healthcare to people living in and around the Upper West Region.
Some of the items needed including; bleach/parazone, veronica buckets, airtime, hand sanitizers, methylated spirit, carbolic soap/key soap/liquid soap, PPE (gloves, coat, wellington boots, face masks, face shield.), cotton, gauze, infrared thermometers, and cash donations among others.
It urged the individuals and organisations wishing to make the donations to channel it through identified resource mobilization team members or to the nearest radio stations for pick up.
All donations, it said would be publicly acknowledged unless not desired by the donor.
