Security analyst Samuel Ayitey has described the recent incident at Ridge Hospital as an unfortunate event that could have been easily prevented.
He stated that the issue was an embarrassment for the country and should not be repeated.
According to him, the nation should not reach a point where security officials must be deployed to hospitals due to such incidents.
Mr Ayitey noted that Ralph Williams, the young man accused of attacking a nurse and causing a disturbance at the facility, could not control his temper, misbehaved, and undermined the work of health professionals on the day of the incident.
“Honestly speaking, what happened was an embarrassment for the country. There is no point for us to deploy security officials to our hospitals due to this needless incident. I think the guy in question could not hold his temper. While it’s unacceptable that a patient might not receive the needed attention, that does not warrant acting lawlessly. It was an unfortunate situation, and we need a more holistic approach in dealing with the matter.”
Speaking in an interview on Nyankonton Mu Nsem on Rainbow Radio 87.5FM, he opined that the incident not only has a security implication but could also undermine the quality of care provided by the hospital.
He has therefore advised the hospital to implement security measures to ensure the safety of both patients and health workers.
Mr Samuel Ayitey also proposed a review of the curriculum for health workers to include security training. He said that just as nurses are required to study French, entrepreneurship, and other courses, it would be beneficial to add security training.
“With the nurses, as part of their training, we can make them study security-related courses. As part of their programmes, they study French and entrepreneurship, so we can include safety and security as part of their entire programme. It should not be limited to nurses but extended to most of our institutions so that our students would be security conscious.”
He also called for enhanced security systems for health workers without necessarily deploying security guards to hospitals or health facilities.
A key suggestion made was the installation of CCTV cameras that are monitored by professionals around the clock.
“The first and most important thing is to install CCTV cameras at the facility. After the installation, the viewing and monitoring shouldn’t be placed in the CEO’s office. Every institution that wants to install CCTV cameras should have a command centre and employ people to manage the systems 24/7 so that while an incident is occurring, they can take immediate action and not wait until after the incident to release the videos. It would be a waste of time to wait until after an incident has occurred before taking action when you have a CCTV system.”
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
