The district leadership of the Union of Professional Nurses and Midwives, Ghana (UPNMG) in South Dayi and the Volta Regional leadership, has repaired and presented three (3) oxygen cylinder carriers to the Peki Government Hospital.
Prior to this gesture, the hospital had just one (1) functioning carrier out of four at the facility.
The situation forced nurses to inconveniently use the three faulty carriers to wheel oxygen cylinders to patients’ bedsides, which posed a great risk to them and the patients.
Moved by the situation, the district leadership of the UPNMG sought approval from the management of the hospital who had tried unsuccessfully to get the carriers repaired before going to fix it.
Presenting the carriers to the management of the hospital during a meeting, the district PRO of UPNMG, Major Mac Drah said they believe safety is a shared responsibility and as such thought it necessary to intervene in the hospital’s situation.
Drah explained that the gesture to the Peki Government Hospital is a demonstration of the union’s readiness to collaborate with the Ghana Health Service (GHS) in providing a safer and more conducive working environment for nurses and midwives in the country.
Receiving the repaired carriers on behalf of the management, the Medical Superintendent of the hospital, Dr. Daniel Koranteng, expressed his gratitude to UPNMG, saying that the gesture by the UPNMG “is so far, one of a kind by any nursing union during his 5-year stay at the hospital.”
Dr. Koranteng urged the union to continue to stay responsive to the needs of its members and general healthcare services in the country.
“You [UPNMG] are the people who don’t promise. You deliver before you promise… We are very grateful. And we also assure you that we will take good care of them [the oxygen carriers] so that your legacy will live with us for a long time,” he said.
He further assured the union of his personal and the management’s commitment to collaborating with the union to improve the welfare and safety of nurses and midwives in the facility.