The management of the Sunyani Municipal Hospital has initiated various steps to help reduce stigmatization and discrimination from personnel of the facility toward people living with HIV and tuberculosis who come to the facility to seek healthcare.
Stigmatization continues to be a challenge in the fight against HIV and tuberculosis in the Bono Region.
Interacting with the media after a training session for the staff, Dr Jennifer Asaman, a paediatrician and the clinical coordinator at the Sunyani Municipal Hospital indicated that about 80 per cent of the staff have been trained on how to properly handle patients to eliminate all forms of stigmatization and discrimination.
“We have trained over 80 percent of the staff within the facility on these issues of stigma and discrimination and the various ways through which patients are discriminated against unconsciously because people intentionally do it.
“Among so many other issues that came up within our training session, it went as bad as the staff who work within the HIV clinic were discriminated against by staff in other units and so we took the training seriously and everybody was trained: mortuary staff, security, nurses, doctors, clinical and non-clinical staff, constituting about 80 percent of our staff.”
Dr. Asaman said the training is to help the hospital workers develop a change in attitude and enhance the quality of care for HIV/AIDS patients.
The Bono region recorded a total of 844 new HIV infections in 2022, leaving a total of 19,281 people living with the disease and a prevalence rate of 2.27% which is higher than the national figure of 1.7%.
Ahmed Ibrahim Bimbilla, the Regional Technical Coordinator of the Ghana AIDS Commission, said stigmatization is threatening the fight against HIV/AIDS in the region. He urged health workers to treat patients with respect and dignity.
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