#internship13

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OBSERVING PUBLIC HEALTH NUISANCE AND NEGLIGENCE CASES IN THE DISTRICT MAGISTRATE AND CIRCUIT COURT.

Court sermons and reporting on Nuisance and Negligence to the Public.

The Environmental Sanitation and Health Department took some offenders causing Nuisance in the Public - One operating in an unhygienic public lava-trine, An unsanitary conditions at Butcher-house and other household who fail to comply with the Public Health Laws and Regulations after they were served with an Abatement Notice.

Public Health  Nuisance  claim by the Environmental Health and Sanitation on the community reports, that the defendants operating the public lava-trine had constantly caused constantly caused offensive waste liquid and chemicals to flow giving out noxious and stanching  smells to affect their environmental safety and their premises causing a nuisance. But  the District Magistrate overruled the case indicating that, it is the responsibility of the Local Government and the Winneba Assembly to put check in place if one fail to comply with the laws and Regulations. So no injunction could be issued.

The accuser in question - Environmental Sanitation and Health Department  claims that as a result of the nuisance and negligence of the Defendants-due to the loitering of their surroundings with toilet,weedy environment.

These making their property unhealthy and uncomfortable to live in, and their families and tenants may suffer great discomfort, inconvenience, disturbance and health risk.  Injunction and fined was issued to these households.

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Achieving my set objective of: Gaining understanding of the work of the various departments under the Municipal Health Directorate. Week 7 & 8.

WORKING UNDER THE NUTRITIONAL DEPARTMENT AND THE CHILD REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH

School Health Program

I  had the chance to be on the School Health Program Team which  consisted of community nurses at the Child Reproductive Health Centre, that weekly visit some selected schools in the municipality for Health Talk. 

The aim of this program is to promote learning and to increase knowledge on health issues , which is fundamental to sustainable development. 

The topic was on : Puberty and how one can keep the body clean when the necessary changes set in. The idea for this talk was to fulfil the primary concern of these school children  in understanding thier bodies, in their hesitant about their bodies.

It was an indeed a very interactive talk despite the lack of Demonstration materials  which could have helped with the  effectiveness of the  teaching in the classroom.  Questions about menstruation, the cleanness of the sex organs, who to contact on such issues and the various improvisation for the menstruation pads one can get in the locality were raised.

Then after some selected children were checked and observed for  lice infestation,skin disease ,eye and ear infection. It was quite an informative talk.

School Children Sitting with such curious faces!

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Environmental Health and Sanitation Office Work

The past few weeks has been all about observing how the Environmental Health and  Sanitation Department carry on their daily works and duties at the office.

The office is open  daily to the public on the issues of  safety, hygiene and the sanitation of the environment. So far these were the key issues that were attended to by the officers.

Registration of the Food Vendors

Complying with applicable environmental, health and safety laws and regulations in Ghana, a total number of 3 food vendors reported for a registration of the Health Card. Which makes their operation accepted and safer for the general public. 

They were referred for a medical check-up at the hospital to determined if they don’t harbour  any transmitted diseases like typhoid ,cholera etc. After these measure, then a Health Card was issued to them to start their food vending operations.

Environmental Safety Complaints

Anonymously report on safety  and sanitation concern for the general  public were reported to the office be to follow up. Most cases reported were about the discriminated dumping of refuse, the neglect-ion of  clean up of rubbish containers by the authorities and broken a tree that poses an imminent danger to health and safety. Follow ups were carried after.

Court sermons and reporting of the Abatements warnings.

Most household who did not take any action after they were serve with the Abatement notice to clean up their dirty environment and ensure it always safer and hygienic were called to court.  The court referral was done by Health Inspectors who arranged  them to be  prosecuted as an infringement of the Ghana laws and Act on  the Environmental Sanitation and safety. 

Those who were also serve with the warning to clean up their environment and reported back to the office came  and  follow up was done by the Health Inspectors to check for the truth of the clean ups warnings.

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Field Work as a Health Inspector under the Environmental Health & Sanitation Department. Week 3,4 & 5.

Diarrhoea diseases and poor sanitation is costing Ghana US$290 million a year with a yearly budget spent on health care accounting of US$54 million leading to a burden on the economy. Ghana also faces a yearly loss of US$1.5 million in labor force due to diarrheal disease or other diseases related to poor sanitation. In addition, different cause of child mortality in Ghana is associated with the poor sanitation. (Water and Sanitation Program, 2012, p.1).

With such burden, the Environmental & Sanitation Department have Health Inspectors who occasionally go on routine inspections in the Winneba Municipality as part of their duties. The Municipal Environmental Health department has to inspect and take action to sort out disrepair that is causing any ‘nuisance.

I have been part of such routine inspections. The nuisances found around the premises that we inspected were human excrements, unhygienic bathhouses,over crowed premises,animal kept in the premises,receptacles, rubbish,street and premises,trade,water,rats, swine and Weedy environments.

Six (6) household/occupants were served with court sermons due to their failure to comply with the notice to take action to clean their unhygienic environment. This indicates that the person or the household to whom the notice was given is liable with a fine/penalty by the Municipal Court.

The households we visited where the Health Inspectors officers thought that the problem of human excrement and refuse is likely to be harmful to their health, or cause a public nuisance so an abatement notice was issued.

Abatement notices was served to 10 households – This notice is a legal ordering and a form of warning for the premise/household/occupants. In addition, the abatement notices order them to keep their environment clean within a specific period of time and report back to the Environmental and Sanitation Department.

Abatement Notice use to issue warning for household with nuisances.

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Week 2 & 3 Field Work-HOSPITAL WASTE MANAGEMENT

For the past 2 weeks I have been working under the Environmental and Sanitation Department which is part of the enormous departments under  the Municipal Health Directorate,Winneba. Hospital Waste management Inspection was part of the number of field works we did. This inspection was put in place to brief on the techniques, equipments,different waste generation and safety precautions that  the hospital use to check the spread of diseases through their waste generated. We inspected both the Trauma Hospital and the Main Government Hospital on their Waste Managements.

* For the Human Anatomical Waste like the waste from surgery and autopsies on patients and Pathological waste like tissues, organs, body parts, human flesh, foetuses and placenta the hospitals use Incineration and Deep burial. But both the deep burial and the incineration has some environmental safety and hygiene concerns.  The smoke it emits from  incineration and the land use for the deep burial  is close to the public place as in one of the hospital we visited. They were instructed to find a proper solution to prevent any  hazard to it surrounding environments.

* For the Sharps Waste  like the disposable needles, syringes, blades, broken glasses or any other item that could cause a cut;  goes through disinfection, chemical treatment and later incinerator but most a times they end up on the main  Community Waste Damp Fields, which has some health concerns. Due to the facts that some people normally sort out such waste materials and live of it. But since it has gone through the such procedure, we were assured it will not have any harmful effects on such people.

* For the Hospital Domestic Waste from the offices, kitchens, rooms, including bed linen, utensils, paper they ends up in a big container which is disposed off at the Community Waste Dumping site. 

*For the Solid Waste (Blood and Body fluids) and Liquid waste ( blood & body fluids) is disinfection by chemicals and discharge into drains.

An incirator

Deep Burial

Central sterile Services Department

Tuttnauer’s Range- low temperature sterilizers and washer-disinfectors

 Large Sterilisation Capacity

High Temperature Water Generation Equipment for Sterilisation and Infection Control

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Learning Objective : Finding the barriers and driving force to food hygiene and safety practices among school food vendors in Winneba Municipality, Ghana

After using the links of the Environmental and Health Department I found some of the target groups/participants  for my research who consisted of School Food Vendors .

These are some of the  Observational pictures  from the interview showing the  vendors operational structures,some foods they sell and how food is been served. It from the interview follow up on the topic of hygiene, safer and nutritious food.

So far I have manage just a few interviews and there are still more to be done.