Weak leadership hampers progress on quality of health care – Dr. Nsiah-Asare



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Dr. Anthony Nsiah-Asare, Director General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), blamed the lack of leadership in most health care delivery outcomes in the Greater Accra Region (GAR).

He said the challenges were very important at the district level and indicated that the GHS Council was not satisfied with the reports and that he was therefore committed to launching the health system of his district.DISHOP) leadership training to change events.

"The information that comes to us sometimes indicates that there is so much conflict between different staff members, which is causing a slowdown in performance," he said. Training would therefore strengthen the capabilities for better performance.

He stated that the GHS Council had reviewed the training program, which should begin sometime around May 2019.

Dr. Nsaih-Asare spoke at the two-day meeting organized by Wednesday in Accra on the Greater Accra Regional Performance Review for 2018, under the theme of the year: "Using Research and ICTs to improve health outcomes in the Greater Accra Region.

The meeting, organized by Greater Accra Regional Health Authority, brought together representatives of all public and quasi-governmental health facilities, as well as the Ghana Christian Health Association (CHAG), to to take stock and take stock of their collective performance last year.

Dr. Nsaih-Asare expressed dissatisfaction with the deeply ingrained attitude of some public health professionals, particularly doctors and nurses, who have chosen to devote more of their time to locals. other private institutions and neglect their essential tasks at their main posts.

He added that these staff members claimed to work, whereas in reality they were simply using their official positions as a resting place after their extensive replacements elsewhere, and ended up returning patients because they were too much bound to work.

It was unprofessional and warned that such attitudes would no longer be tolerated by the GHS Council and advised professionals who preferred to work with the private sector to do so. legally and refrain from taking double pay and taking for granted the public health sector.

The Director General stated that the GHS had printed approximately 75,000 copies of its Code of Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures for distribution to all staff, for impregnation purposes and for the purpose of the inspection. ;application.

The Service, he said, will continue its efforts to provide at least one vehicle to each district to facilitate their work, promote high-quality health outcomes and universal health coverage.

He congratulated all health workers for their sacrifices despite the many challenges and constraints encountered in their field of activity. duty and urged them to build on their momentum to maintain the gains needed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

Dr. Charity Sarpong, Regional Director of Health Services, said that the year under review had shown mixed performance, with good results for some indicators, while others were stagnating or decreasing.

She stated that the number of outpatient departments per capita had increased slightly, from 0.86 in 2017 to 0.88 in 2018, which might not accurately reflect the difficulties in accessing data from some health facilities. not covered by the GHS.

She added that although malaria is the leading cause of outpatient visits in the last three years, there has been a gradual but steady reduction in the burden of disease.

This, she attributed to interventions such as the distribution of insecticide-treated mosquito nets (LLINS), the intensification of public education, building the ability of health personnel to use rapid diagnostic tests for easy and rapid diagnosis.

"However, we are seeing an increasing trend in the incidence of noncommunicable diseases, particularly hypertension and diabetes," and to address this problem, the GHS would liaise with leading health facilities to in place functional wellness clinics as part of their activities. Routine OPD, so that the public shows up without an appointment to do the screening as needed.

Dr. Sarpong said the total number of skilled deliveries increased from 56.2% in 2017 to 63.2% in 2018, while maternal mortality in institutions deceased from 189 to 166.1% respectively 100,000 live births, but stillbirth however, rates stagnated and declined slightly, from 1.5% to 1.4% over the same periods.

"We are pleased with the decrease in maternal mortality, which has been achieved through the collective work of our staff and the introduction of innovations such as the Kybele reference platform, which aims to improve reference pregnant women in health facilities, "she said.

She also mentioned the successful establishment of a telemedicine consulting center, operating from regional hospitals, to link peripheral staff, particularly community-based planning and health service areas ( CHPS), to other senior executives such as Midwives and Center physicians. different levels of health care, to improve the quality of care and limit referrals.

She stated that problems such as poor data management, weak management and governance structures, poor management of human resources and inadequate resources and logistics, equitable distribution of available health professionals, and poor attitudes commitment also had a negative impact on service coverage, quality and results.

Others include the on-concentration health facilities in the city of Accra, l & # 39; lack district hospitals in nine of the 16 districts in 2018, resulting in uneven distribution of physicians and other health professionals to the most endowed districts.

She said initiatives such as institutionalized peer review of hospitals and polyclinics, the platform for auditing and accountability for maternal deaths; and the integrated disease surveillance and response system integrated with the establishment of the Greater Accra website were set up to provide weekly feedback and measure district performance to help them improve performance. disadvantaged districts through the sharing of best practices.

Dr. Sarpong said that in 2019, the performance of the region would be guided by the theme "Strengthening our health systems to achieve universal health coverage: the role of quality data management and Well Governance ", whose work program is underlined by priority interventions.

Mr. Ishmael Ashitey, Regional Minister for Greater Accra, in a speech read on his behalf, called for the need to ensure an equitable distribution of resources among districts, especially newly created ones, for effective delivery of health care services. health.

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