The Director of Port with the Ghana Health Service in-charge of the Tema Port, Raphael John Marfo, who made the observation, said health staff always rely on private companies to perform duties at the various ports.
The Director made the observation on Tuesday, February 23 in an interview on Onua TV’s Maakye hosted by Afia Tagor.
“The Ghana Health Service does not have a health boat vessel on its own so we rely on those who have it but port health must have its own health boat that works 24hours,” he explained.
He said: “This is hampering our work. Another challenge is staffing…we are woefully inadequate. It’s not only at Tema Port but the whole country. Ghana has 42 entry points. Only 18 have port health staff and staff are inadequate because port health must do early detection.”
“The staff do not have training on the sea and at certain points in time, the sea is rough.”
Mr. Marfo noted that “we need a means of transport that will convey staff to and from work. We need health boats of our own”.
He further said “port is not hospital, airport is not hospital, so you don’t send nurses there. You place them at vantage points so that you need them, you recall them”.
“We need clearance for the government in the 2021 budget to employ more health staff.”
Covid-19 lockdown
Commenting on what Covid-19 did to the port health sector, Mr. Marfo revealed that “with the Covid-19, we disinfected every ship that comes to our shores”.
He said “two weeks ago, a vessel came from Ukraine with three Russians having the Covid, so we took them for treatments and we disinfected the vessel”.
Mr. Marfo said “during the lockdown, we did not close down but what we were supposed to have gotten were not given”.
He said “we run 24/7. We had the 50% increment in salaries but other benefits were not paid”.
By Kweku Antwi-Otoo|3news.com|Ghana