DEGREEE PROGRAMME FOR NURSE ANAESTHETISTS (MIRROR, PAGE 34, MAY 29, 2010)

From George Ernest Asare, Kumasi

Authorities of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in collaboration with the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and
(KNUST) and the Ministry of Health, will start a degree programme for practising Nurse Anaesthetists next year.
This will offer the nurses the requisite know-how in supporting medical officers to offer basic life and advance cardiac life support to help reduce mortality and morbidity associated with trauma cases.
The Head of Directorate of Anaesthesia and Intensive care at KATH, Dr Gabriel Boakye, who announced this during a three–day workshop for Nurse Anaesthetists in Kumasi, explained that when the programme begins in 2011, practising Nurse Anaesthetists will start from Level 200 to enable them complete the course in three years.
About 160 participants across the country attended the workshop which was organised by the Directorate of Anaesthesia of the KATH , in collaboration with their counterparts from the University of Utah in the United States of America.
It was the 10th of a series of annual refresher workshops organised by the KATH and the Utah University to build the capacity of anaesthesia practitioners to enable them to provide safe anaesthesia to patients.
Commending the Head of the team from Utah, Professor Jeff Peters, for his continuous support in building the capacity of practitioners of anaesthesia in Ghana, Dr Boakye said through his efforts, “ the University of Utah and other US agencies have donated medical equipment, drugs, books and teaching materials worth over one million dollars over the past seven years to the KATH”.
The Chief Executive of KATH, Professor Ohene Adjei, assured that his administration would “facilitate the provision of land to the Ministry of Health for the construction of a permanent block for the Anaesthesia Training School”.
He pointed out that notwithstanding, the fact that intensive care skills and facilities are very critical in saving lives and reducing preventable deaths, running intensive care units are very expensive in the health delivery sector.
Explaining, Professor Adjei said while it cost the KATH GH¢ 800 a day to keep a patient at the Intensive Care Unit, (ICU) the hospital charges only a token of Gh¢100 but about 80 per cent of patients are unable to foot their bills.
“ The end result is that the ICU , arguably the best in the West African sub region, is gradually being deprived of the resources needed to run and maintain it”.
He pointed out that the location of Kumasi, coupled with the numerous accident cases brought to the hospital on a daily basis, put intense pressure on their facilities.
He, therefore, appealed to corporate bodies, institutions and individuals to support them cater for the critically ill and accident victims brought to the hospital.