The Ghana Health Service (GHS) Governing Council has paid a 3-day working visit to the Volta Region, as part of its nationwide tour of public health facilities.
The visit which took place from Sunday May 13 to Tuesday, May 14, 2018, formed part of the Council’s initiative to get closer to the service delivery points and interact with management, staff and patients on challenges affecting quality service delivery.
Upon arrival on Sunday, the Council led by the chairman, Dr. Yao Yeboah and Director General of GHS, Dr. Anthony Nsiah-Asare had its meeting in the Region before proceeding to a tour of selected health facilities in subsequent days.
Dr. Ofori Yeboah, Deputy Regional Director in-charge of Public health took the entourage round the selected facilities including, the Hohoe Municipal Hospital, Alavanyo Dzogbedze CHPS compound, Dzolo Gborgame Health Centre, and Volta Regional Hospital in Ho.
Issues raised by the management and staff  of the facilities visited in the region, were lack of staff accommodation, poor roads to health facilities, inadequate staffing due the refusal of healthcare professionals to accept posting to the region inadequate Ambulances, among others.
Response
The Director-General, Dr. Anthony Nsiah-Asare in response to the concerns, assured the staff of measures being taken to address the challenges of accommodation, staffing and ambulance service.
He indicated that continuous quality improvement should be a key in providing cost effective and efficient services and advice facility managers to use Internally Generated Funds (IGF) efficiently and judiciously.
“Various institutions should use innovative ways to attract and retain health professionals to the region, district and health facilities. GHS is poised to provide quality Universal Health Coverage especially at the Primary health level”, he added.
The Council chairman, Dr. Yeboah commended the Regional Health directorate and health facilities management for their commitment towards service delivery and the drastic reduction in Institutional Maternal Mortality rate in the region.
He however appealed to health workers in the region to ensure customer care, good interpersonal relationships with the patients and encouraged them to focus much on effective primary health care preventive health care service delivery.
The Council earlier visited the Eastern and Central regions in January and March respectively as part of the nationwide visit.
By: Voltaonlinegh.com