Mr Lambert Akadelba Atanga, an Ophthalmic Nurse at the Bongo District Hospital in the Upper East Region has appealed for the establishment of an Ophthalmic Nursing School in northern Ghana to train more people in Ophthalmic Nursing to improve eye care services.
The appeal came on the backdrop of seemingly less attention paid to Ophthalmic Nursing care in the Savannah, Northern, North East, Upper East and Upper West Regions owing to the few numbers of Ophthalmic Nurses.
“We have only one school in Ghana that trains Ophthalmic Nurses, at least, we need an Ophthalmic school in the north that can train more to increase the number of Ophthalmic Nurses to extend eye care services to people, especially in the rural areas.”
Mr Atanga, who was part of a team of health professionals who conducted free health screening for the people of Gorogo in the Talensi District of the Region, made the appeal in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Bolgatanga.
He also appealed to the Government to properly equip eye care units in health facilities, especially in the districts, to benefit many people.
Mr Atanga said the eye was a delicate organ in the body which should be given the needed care and attention to prevent blindness, insisting that people must use sunglasses to protect their eyes from sun rays, and regularly undergo eye check-ups.
Speaking on the findings of the just ended health screening exercise, Mr Desmond Yaani, also an Ophthalmic Nurse at the Fumbisi Health Centre in the Builsa South District told the GNA that a total of 125 people were screened for various eye conditions in the Gorogo community.
He said out of the number, 25 people, mostly the aged, had cataracts, some of which were matured enough for surgery, and emphasized the need for people to pay much attention to the care of their eyes.
Apart from the cataracts, Mr Yaani said pterygia, refractive errors, pinguecula, allergic, vernal and bacterial conjunctivitis, corneal scars, and phthisis bulbi, among others, were some of the eye conditions they found among beneficiaries of the free screening exercise.
He said the community members were also screened for Ear, Nose, Throat (ENT) conditions, their Blood Pressures (BPs), viral hepatitis status, and Random Blood Sugar (RBS) were checked and commended the opinion leaders and the beneficiaries for their co-operation during the exercise.
Mr Yaani said the team of health professionals had over the years extended similar free health screening exercises to rural communities in the Upper East and North East Regions to cater for the health care needs of the less privileged.
He said as part of the screening exercises, the team made up of Nurses with specialties in different areas, also educated beneficiary communities in the two Regions on basic health conditions to enable them to live healthy lifestyles.
