Health workers at the front line in Ghana’s fight against COVID-19 may be forced to panic and leave their duty posts due to lack of Personal Protection Equipment (PPEs) to help their work.
This is according to the Director of Public Health at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Dr. Philip Amoo who spoke in an interview monitored by MyNewsGh.com.
According to him, it is only when health workers are properly equipped and trained that they can face whatever threat is stake, saying it is “nonsense” for anyone to expect health worker to not panic when they are exposed to danger.
“We health workers are trained, we can handle anything. However the panic is not that the person is not aware, that’s the mistake even authorities do. They say don’t panic, have you trained them, are they aware? That is nonsense. The panic that comes, comes from a deep-seated feeling that the person doesn’t have the protection he/she needs,” he stated in an interview with our sister outlet ABC News.
“If you see panic and people running away let nobody fault the health worker and the mere fact that they’re saying don’t panic, why are you panicking or trying to play on their intellectual; that you’re a health worker, you’re a trained personnel, why are you panicking, that’s a joke”, he added.
He said as health worker they can face even the devil himself when well-equipped.
“The sincere and the correct thing to do is the assurance of our staff that there is appropriate protective equipment and they are knowledgeable on how to use it correctly. When that happens there will be nothing like panic, even the devil can come we will not fear. But if they don’t have and they think it’s not adequate we will all run away. They can go to hell and say whatever…Let nobody come and use other things like it’s a simple thing or it’s just a cold. That is nonsense to the health worker,” he fumed.
