Upper East Regional Director of Health Services, Dr Winfred Ofosu, has called on the Police to arrest and prosecute any health professional in the Region who will be seen riding motorbike without wearing a crash helmet.
He said the initiative formed part of measures by the Regional Health Directorate to reduce the rate of fatal accidents among health professionals in the region.
He said the Region had lost strong and energetic young men and women through motorbike accidents because they were not were not wearing crash helmets.
Dr Ofosu who made the call in an interview with the GNA in Bolgatanga, expressed concern about the situation, and said even though the Directorate had issued several cautions to all health institutions as a measure to check the act, professionals, especially nurses and midwives were still seen in uniform riding without crash helmets.
The Director noted that it was the responsibility of health professionals to encourage citizens to put on crash helmets while riding motorbikes to avoid head injury, and propagate the use of seat belts in cars, adding that, it was unfortunate they were the very people acting contrary to these live saving practices.
Dr Ofosu noted that the region lost four nurses from the Nabdam, Builsa South, Bawku West Districts and the Kassena-Nankana Municipality to motorbike accidents without crash helmets, and called for attitudinal change among staff, especially nurses.
Joseph Akurugu, Transport Officer at the Health Directorate, used the opportunity in separate interviews to call on the DVLA, to institute measures to reduce the delay and bureaucracy that health professionals, especially Community Health Nurses who mostly use motorbikes, go through to acquire licenses.
