Zorko (U/E)-Ghana, Aug. 30, GNA – The Nurse and Midwife Specialists Society of Ghana (NMSSG) has screened about 500 students of the Zorko Senior High School (SHS) in the Bongo District of the Upper East Region for various medical conditions.
They assessed their vital signs, including Blood Pressure (BP), weight and temperature and conducted head to toe examination on the students, ran malaria test on them, and assessed their Haemoglobin (Hb) levels to rule out anaemia.
The exercise, which was free of charge, was undertaken by a team of Specialists nurses of various categories, and sponsored by the Anini Project, a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), which had over the years sponsored similar exercises in the Region.
Mr Mark Anthony Azongo, the National Chairman of the NMSSG, who led members to conduct the exercise, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Zorko that the health needs of the populace were of concern to the Society and the NGO.
“We just want to achieve a healthy society. So, with sponsorship from Anini Project, we have decided to use our expertise to render services to these students,” he said.
Mr Azongo said the team was made of four categories of Specialist nurses, including Accident and Emergency Nurse Specialists, Critical Nurse, Paediatric Nurse and Haematology Nurse Specialists drawn from the Regional Hospital in Bolgatanga.
He said students with identified health conditions that could not be handled by the team would be counselled and referred to hospital for further investigations and management.
He said the initiative was part of their contribution to the Ghana Health Service’s quest to achieve Universal Health Coverage in the Region and the country as a whole.
Mr Azongo, who is a Paediatric Nurse Specialist at the Regional Hospital in Bolgatanga, noted that the Society had over 10 categories of Specialists Nurses and Midwives, “So it is a well-resourced group of expertise.”
He expressed gratitude to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Anini Project, Ms Sofia Gonzalez Mesias for the continuous support, and called on other NGOs, philanthropists and individuals with interest in health, to partner the NMSSG to extend the screening exercise to other institutions, especially the less privileged in rural areas.
Ms Gonzalez told the GNA that the exercise was the fifth community outreach programme undertaken by her outfit in the Region.
She recalled that similar screening exercises were conducted at Zaare and Soe, which are communities in the Bolgatanga Municipality, and said the plan of the organisation was to scale up its support to rural communities outside the regional capital.
She said the gesture extended to the Zorko SHS was a pilot programme and was hopeful that the success of the exercise would encourage them to move more into rural communities in the Region and beyond.
She thanked the team of Specialist nurses for the partnership, noting that “Without them, we will not be able to do anything of this kind.”
Mr Napoleon Awine, the Teacher in-charge of students’ health in the school, thanked the team and the sponsor on behalf of management for the gesture, describing it as a “blessing.”
He said students reported to school with different health conditions, and staff sometimes rushed them to hospital for medical attention.
The Girls Senior Prefect of the school, Ms Clemencia Nmaah Agea, thanked the leadership and members of the Specialists society and their sponsor for the support and appealed to them to regularly extend their services to the school.
