Mar 23 , 2020 | Graphic Online

The Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi has secured a comprehensive insurance package for its frontline staff handing the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases.
It covers the nurses and doctors at KATH who are working at the risk of their own lives to save lives during the Coronavirus pandemic.

KATH, according to the Chief Executive, Dr Oheneba Owusu Danso has 400 frontline staff handling the pandemic.

This was known by the Chief Executive, Dr Oheneba Owusu Danso at a press briefing organised by the Ashanti Regional Directorate of Health Services in Kumasi on Monday.

He said the move was not just the monetary gains but to compensate staff who in the course of the management would have to spend so much time such as working over 12 hours to save lives.

He said: “For us at Komfo Anokye, just last Friday, we got an insurance package for more than 400 of our staff and it is going to involve everybody, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, nurse assistants, labourers, anybody who has been so classified as belonging to the team, because the preparation for this is comprehensive, so it is like setting a comprehensive health team to care for any patient, so every cadre of staff is involved. And like I said the nurses are in the majority, infact even for this particular insurance company, we have actually admonished them that we will give them a list for them to issue the individual awards, that is exactly what we are going to do in the coming weeks, so everybody is covered.”

“And beyond this, let me add, it is not just beyond the insurance cover, it is also about motivation, we should not wait for people to get sick before they get something out of the efforts because if you came to Komfo Anokye, now we are setting up three teams, so that a team can get rest or go off duty. What it means that on a daily basis we are running with two teams and they are doing 12 hours which is more than the regular shift system that they would have worked for.”

“And the risk involved, the sacrifices involved, at the end of the period, or timeously we think that people who have volunteered, have sacrificed their time and whatever or for belonging to the emergency preparedness team must be motivated, and that has been factored into our preparations at Komfo Anokye and also at the national level,” Dr Oheneba Danso added.