GHS to block use of phones by staff on duty

The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has explained that the decision to block the use of mobile phones among health workers on duty is to improve efficiency in health posts across the country.

The GHS says it has received numerous complaints from relatives of patients on how health professionals spend time on their phones even when attending patients.

Speaking in an interview on Monday, the Director General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Anthony Nsiah Asare, said the decision may take effect sometime this year.

“The rationale behind the ban is to get the Health Officers to pay attention to their job when on the field. Some patients and their family members complain bitterly of how some health professionals use their phones when they visit the hospitals. It is not a good sign.

“We’ll put in place an intercom system through which health officials can communicate. We’ll issue a statement and most of the institutions will have the intercom systems working. In most organizations, except in some banks and some corporate institutions, you’ll find most officials of the facilities on their mobile phones. In the Western World, in most of the hospitals, networks do not work well to help check some of these irregularities. Intercom systems are used. We’re considering scrambling the network system in the hospitals so health officials cannot use them while at post”.

Meanwhile, a physician and lawyer, Justice Yankson, says the move should be thought through thoroughly.

“If a doctor doesn’t use a mobile phone and lacks basic amenities to work with, does it solve the problems the sector may be facing? We have a situation where most of the health facilities in this country do not have communication gadgets at all. In places where there are some of these gadgets, they are either malfunctioning or work once a while”.