Dr Bertrand Agilinko, the Acting Medical Superintendent of the Sandema Hospital in the Builsa North Municipality of the Upper East Region has called on health professionals in the facility not to deny patients without face masks health care services.

“You cannot refuse health care to patients because they are not wearing masks, if anything goes wrong, you can’t defend yourself. But there are relatives who come to visit and we must insist that they have their masks on during their short stay in the ward”.

Dr Agilinko, who was speaking at a staff durbar organised by management of the Hospital, added that “I have noted with very grave concern that because most of us don’t like wearing the masks when the patients and relatives are also not wearing masks, we are unable to talk.”

He said no one expected the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, and indicated that in spite of the unexpected outbreak, the facility had properly managed the spread of the virus.

Even though the facility had no case of Covid-19, he stressed that the fight against the virus was not over, and urged staff of the Hospital not to relent on their efforts at checking its spread in the facility and the Municipality at large.

“Covid-19 is still there, let’s be careful,” the Acting Medical Superintendent cautioned the staff.

Dr Agilinko delved into breast cancer, which was one of the conditions many members of the public paid less attention to and said the Hospital had over the past weeks screened people for breast cancer.

He disclosed that the facility was better prepared to handle screening for breast and cervical cancers, “We have sent two of our staff for training on screening for cervical cancer. The unit will be in place in the shortest possible time.”

Dr Agilinko used the opportunity to advise his staff to relate well with their patients and clients, noting that the attitude of some staff of the Hospital was a concern among some sections of the public.

Mr Stephen Adombire, the Acting Deputy Director of Nursing Services (DDNS) of the Hospital, noted that the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic had posed some challenges to service delivery.

He commended nurses and midwives for their commitment over the years and emphasized the need for staff to be customer-care sensitive to recapture the lost glory of the Hospital.

He said there was more room for improvement in terms of what they could do as nurses and midwives to improve on health care delivery, “We know what we are supposed to do as nurses, we all know the time we are supposed to report for work.

“It is not in the best interest of our patients and our own colleagues when we are expected to be at work by 7 am for morning shift, 1 pm for afternoon shift or 7 pm for night shift to take over, and we are not.

“That is not the kind of environment we want to have. Those who report early to work please keep up the good work for we know the unique contribution that we make to improving patient outcome,” Mr Adombire said.