Editorial
Let’s sustain ‘Reset’ edition of Indece Day celebration
Dear Editor,
I write to congratulate the government and the security services for the impressive organisation of this year’s Independence Day celebration.
The 68th edition of the event is what I call the ‘Reset’ edition due to the major cut it suffered regarding the massive reduction in terms of resources and personnel in a bid to control government expenditure.
That notwithstanding, it proved to be outstanding as the few selected forces and school children lived up to the occasion.
At least we were spared of the long session of March past by several school contingents, only for the security services to replicate the entire exercise.
In the end, it leaves a lot of people – school children, service men and women and even audience so exhausted and fatigued.
For the school children, they are lucky to get the following day as a holiday but others would continue with work.
I want to suggest that in order to save cost and reduce this exhaustion, we adopt the reduced or reset edition style except for major milestones like Golden Jubilee (which we have gone past), Diamond Jubilee, Centenary celebration and so forth.
Additionally, the regional celebrations should be sustained or perhaps reviewed as it becomes worrying sometimes seeing the children kept in the scorching sun for hours.
As the occasion coincides with the Heritage Month celebration, schools can be empowered by the Ghana Education Service (GES) to partner organisation with particular expertise of interest to organise educative programmes for the school children.
Other activities like the Armed Forces Open Day should also be sustained while the other security agencies like the Police, Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) Ghana Prisons Service (GPS) Customs, now GRA must be encouraged to embrace the idea.
That would widen the scope of choices for the participants.
It was also gratifying watching the living past presidents, J.A Kufour and Nana Akufo-Addo shared the same podium on such a historic day.
Prince Amartey,
Dodowa
Editorial
Kudos to Ho Teaching Hospital staff, but …
Dear Editor,
If there is any group of professionals that get bad-mouthed the most, then you are referring to nurses and medical doctors assigned to public hospitals across the country.
For this particular letter, I want to sing the praises of this same group of professionals that work at the Ho Teaching Hospital, famously known as Trafalgar.
Despite the work load and the mass casualties received at the emergency ward of the hospital, the welcoming nature of the nurses and the professional touch by the doctors can’t be ignored. My personal experience has got me travelling from my base in Accra to seek medical services from these professionals.
Special mention has to be made of the likes of Precious of the Pharmacy Department, Dr Brandon Banor (a maxillofacial resident) of the Dental unit, male nurse Justice assigned to the female surgical ward. Words cannot really do justice to their affable, professional caring nature. A simple thank you is all that I can say.
In the same vein, I can’t but call out the bad attitude of the auxiliary staff and contractors of the hospital.
Chief among them is some of the contracted bank staff that handle the payment section of the hospital and the patient registration section (those that check the status of the patient as to whether they are fee paying patients or NHIS sponsored).
The attitude at times leaves a bad taste in the mouth. One such occurrence was a night staff of the registration section who had her legs on the office table whilst talking to patients.
The CEO of the hospital needs to shine his torch light on this support sections before they erode the awesome performance of the direct medical staff of the hospital.
Thank you for the space.
Kwesi Manu
Accra
Editorial
Develop policies to address disability concerns
Dear Editor,
AT the beginning of the year, when I went to the bank to deposit money into my uncle’s account, I observed a very sad situation where a man in a wheelchair struggled to navigate his way around the facility.
This is because the structure is disability unfriendly.
As I stood and watched how the man struggled to move his wheelchair, I felt sad and wondered if this is how the life of a disabled person should be. It becomes worse if there is no one to offer help.
In Ghana, People With Disabilities (PWDs) are often treated differently and are often subjected to all forms of discrimination.
Most of these people find themselves in such a situation as a result of unfortunate happenings such as accidents and injuries.
It is, therefore, not appropriate for anyone to discriminate against them. Discrimination against such persons take many forms, including how buildings are constructed.
Most of the public structures are not disability friendly and impede their movement.
As a country, we should consider the PWDs in designing our structures. I also think that there should be a national policy that seeks to address this issue.
I have a strong conviction that when such a policy is developed by the government, people with disabilities would feel appreciated and also promote social inclusivity.
Ray,
Kasoa
