The Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) will construct clinics around the country to meet the basic medical requirements of its employees and their families.
The first clinic will be built as part of the programme, which is in partnership with non-governmental organisations (NGOs), in Tema, in the Greater Accra Area.
At a gathering of the National Fire Service Council and employees of the Eastern Regional Command last Friday in Koforidua, the capital of the Eastern Region, the National Chief Fire Officer, Julius Kuunuor, said as much.
Introduction
The purpose of the meeting was to improve communication between the regional officers and the GNFS Board members as well as to discuss the difficulties the service is currently facing in the area.
A new structure that the area's retired service officers had built for their meetings was dedicated at the same ceremony.
Welfare
In the upcoming years, the first clinic in Tema, according to Mr. Kuunuor, would be improved to become a Fire Trauma Hospital.
He said that the entire scheme would guarantee that military people would receive the greatest care possible across all locations.
According to the Chief Fire Officer, the Welfare Directorate and the various fire stations are now operating a Mobile Counseling Clinic to provide workers with marital and family issues with counselling in order to help them get ready for retirement.
According to Mr. Kuunuor, the service's Accra headquarters already had a counselling unit of this kind.
In order to handle important welfare concerns such occupational health and safety, general health care, and counselling, he said, "the service should devote the required attention to the welfare of all military and civilian workers."
He also took advantage of the chance to discuss the various developments within the service, including promotions, the creation of a scholarship programme for children of employees who died while performing their duties, donations to bereaved families, posthumous promotions for employees who died in combat, and recruitments.
training and personnel
Mr. Kuunuor stated that the Fire Academy and Training School (FATS), the only centralised institution for training the people, was being renovated with the necessary facilities in regards to training.
To ensure enough personnel development for the agency, he said, the administration of the service will be buying sizable tracts of land in each of the 16 political and administrative districts to establish fire colleges and training facilities.
Regarding in-service training, Mr. Kuunuor said the service planned to sign an Agreement with a few of the regional institutions to teach its employees in the necessary subjects from the undergraduate to postgraduate levels.
He mentioned that this year, several required courses will be organised for staff members from the Fireman/Firewoman level to the top management level.
Emergency phone calls
While welcoming the council members, the Eastern Regional Fire Officer, ACFO I Jennifer Naa Yarley Quaye, stated that her organisation had lost eight of its employees and had responded to 779 emergency calls, or nearly 22% of all calls in the previous year.
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