The Health Minster, Mr. Kwaku Agyeman-Manu has asked health workers to engage the government in dialogue over their grievances rather that resorting to strike actions.
He said the government was always prepared to dialogue with workers over their concerns and expects same for all sectors of the working population.
Health workers in the country usually withdraw their service to the public, to back their demand for better conditions of service.
Mr. Agyeman-Manu who was speaking at the sixth induction and oath-swearing ceremony of the Allied Health graduates in Accra yesterday said the provision of quality health care which was patient centred was one of the utmost priority of the government.
The Allied Health graduates who have completed their theoretical training in various tertiary training institutions would be serving as interns in health facilities for one year to gain practical experiences before qualifying as health professionals.
They comprised six audiologists, 96 health promotion officers, eight community mental health officers, 64 disease control officers, six environmental health officers,54 health information officers, 145 nutritionists, 11 dental laboratory scientist, 34 physiotherapists, 26 diagnostic radiographers and 49 dieticians.
The rest are 327 medical laboratory scientists, 113 optometrists, 21 sonographers, 12 speech therapists, five therapy radiographers and seven occupational therapists.
He entreated the graduants to accept postings to serve in rural communities and other deprived areas to ensure that no one is left out in the provision of universal health care.
Professor Clement Opoku-Okrah, an Associate Professor in Hematology and Immunohematology, said Ghana’s health workforce was confronted with underinvestment in education, deployment and retention of health professionals which had been a barrier to meeting the SDGs.
“Further challenges are anticipated from an ageing health workforce and too few new recruits to replace retirees, as the health ministry was unable to engage more professional workforce due to lack of funds.”
The Acting Registrar of the Allied Health Professions Council (AHPC) Dr. Samuel Yaw Opoku charged the granduants to be innovative and search for knowledge as well as better ways of managing health to the benefit of the population.
He asked them to be humble and respectful to their supervisors in the clinical setting to enable them learn from them and stay focused to easily overcome the challenges in the work scenes.
The inductees swore an oath to submit newly accepted standarts of doing things for the benefits of their clients and respects the rights of their clients at all times.
The role of allied health professionals in health care includes the provision of safe and effective diagnosis, preventive therapeutic, rehabilitative and supportive care across the range of health services.
By Linda Naa Deide Aryeetey and Allia Noshie
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