The Acting Metropolitan Director of Health at Tamale, Dr. Hilarious Abewu, has raised concerns over absenteeism among nurses in all 52 health facilities in the metropolis.

He said only one-third of the staff go to work regularly; adding that, there are instances where sick persons visit these facilities and there is no health professional to attend to them.

“Generally, only about one-third of the people, who are my people, come to work regularly. In one of our Healthcare centers, with about 60 staff on the roll, it's only about 18 people that come to work, which means the rest of the 32 virtually do not go to work but they get paid”, he said.

He made this disclosure during a panel discussion at the 2021 annual performance review meeting under the theme; "Improving the quality of routine services in the midst of COVID-19 Pandemic: The role of effective Human Resource Management in Tamale Metro".

He, therefore, called on the various stakeholders to join hands in the fight to stop this unprofessional behaviour.

“It is time all of us join hands in addressing this challenge so that we will all be assured that if any of us in this room develops an emergency here and rush to any of our Healthcare facilities, our facility will not be the reason why you will die prematurely”, he said.

The Health Director for the Kumbungu District, Dr. Barikisu Seidu, attributed some of the challenges faced by the health sector in the region to what she said is the poor job description of health workers at these facilities. She said most health staff have not been given orientation on their job description.

This, she believes is affecting the service negatively. She urged the Human Resource Department to issue appointment letters to new staff with a clarified job description.

“If our own staff do not understand these policies, how can we expect other stakeholders to understand it”, she stated.

The Health Director for the Tolon District, Dr. Osman Seidu, also raised concerns over the poor distribution of staff which he attributed to interference from traditional authorities and politicians.

“The problem is, there is mal-distribution and the reason is that there is serious interference from traditional authorities and politicians and the last thing is centered to ourselves. We have a conflict of interest”, he said.