President John Agyekum Kufuor has directed the police to enforce road traffic regulations by promptly arresting and prosecuting drivers whose conduct results in avoidable accidents.
He has also called on the judiciary to exact swift and harsh punishment for deviant drivers found guilty of road traffic regulations as a way of deterring others.
"The killing and maiming of innocent Ghanaians through vehicular accidents cannot continue and measures should be put in place to curb the menace before it gets out of control," he noted.
President Kufuor gave the directives at the inauguration of the ultra-modern Accident and Emergency Centre at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) last Saturday.
The project, which also includes the construction of a new Pathology Centre, the refurbishment of the Outpatient Department (OPD) of the hospital and equipment installation there, was funded by the Ghana government through the HIPC initiative and the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) at an estimated cost of 74,923,750 euros.
The edifice, which has a helipad on top to enhance easy landing for helicopters transporting accident victims for prompt medical care, was constructed by GerTech GmbH, a German contractor, with Kumasi-based Consar Contractors as the sub-contractors.
Just before the ceremony got underway, a helicopter demonstrating how emergency cases could be transported to the Accident and Emergency Centre landed on the helipad at 11:15 a.m.
President Kufuor urged the police to collaborate with the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) and the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) to intensify the monitoring and enforcement of road traffic regulations to bring discipline on the roads.
Expressing concern over the spate of vehicular accidents on the major trunk roads in the country and the negative impact they have on the human and natural resources of the country, President Kufuor said, "The whole nation should be concerned about the numerous, unnecessary and avoidable road accidents."
Referring to a front page story in the Daily Graphic of July 27, 2000 which stated that "Ghana is rated among the leading six accident-prone countries and within the preceding six years 6,517 lives were lost and 51,877 people injured in road accidents", President Kufuor said, "Any society with a sense of fellow-feeling will be deeply worried by such horrifying statistics, so will a government which is investing so much in human resource development."
He noted that it was because of the premium his government put on human resource development that the administration "has put accident and emergency services high on its health development agenda to reduce the number of deaths from accidents and the burden of disability which results from such accidents".
"Building state-of-the-art facilities alone is not enough. There is also the need for effective public education on accidents and their prevention," he noted, and called on road users "to be more careful and respect regulations regarding road use".
He also noted that an emergency centre was worthwhile "only when victims get there in good time", hence the establishment of the National Ambulance Service to manage the pre-hospital care of accident victims.
President Kufuor said apart from the Accident and Emergency Centre at KATH, his government had also initiated the construction of two new regional hospitals in Wa and Kumasi, in addition to the rehabilitation and expansion of the Bolgatanga Regional Hospital.
"A new specialised Maternity and Children’s Hospital at Ridge in Accra, with funding from the Kuwait Fund, seven new district hospitals and five new polyclinics nation-wide affirm the government's commitment to the health needs of Ghanaians," he stressed.
In his address, the Minister of Health, Major Courage Quashigah (retd), pointed out that "trauma is among the top 10 causes of death in the country and those who first come into contact with accident victims are usually lay people with little or no knowledge of first aid and life-saving procedures and skills".
He said at the hospital level, "most medical and paramedical staff are not properly organised, have little practical knowledge of the priorities or skills required for the management of acutely injured patients".
He said it was in line with those problems that the government had taken steps over the last four years to reverse the problems affecting health institutions in the country.
He pointed out that "a series of training and trauma care has been organised for health facilities and for various transport and drivers unions to enhance their life-saving skills in acute trauma".
The Health Minister says the vision for constructing the Accident and Emergency Centre at KATH "is to develop this edifice into a regional centre of excellence for managing accident victims and patients needing emergency care. We also intend that in the very near future it will be a centre for training health personnel in the management of accidents".
In his welcoming address, the Chief Executive of KATH, Dr Anthony Nsiah Asare, said to enhance efficient and effective healthcare delivery for accident victims, his administration "has actively sought best practice in the management of accidents and emergencies from countries such as Israel, Germany, the UK and Italy, with the view to instituting functional management structures for the effective running of the centre right from the onset".
He said the hospital had also entered into a number of agreements with some international voluntary medical organisations and institutions "to turn the project into a major centre for specialised training for health professionals in the West African sub-region".
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