By Dorothy Frances Ward
Kumasi, July 21. GNA-Tertiary healthcare institutions must strive to make conscious efforts to put in place effective governance mechanisms that actively tap the inputs of senior specialists and consultants.
This will help guide the formulation of operational policies and institutional strategies for the delivery of quality healthcare services to their clients.
Professor Otchere Addai-Mensah, Chief Executive of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi, who made the call, said it was important for teaching hospitals and other tertiary healthcare institutions to optimise the capabilities of their specialists to improve tertiary healthcare services.
Prof. Addai-Mensah was speaking at a maiden consultative forum organised by the hospital for its management members, Senior Specialists and Consultants.
It was on the theme “Driving a customer-centric healthcare delivery at KATH; The role of senior specialists and consultants”.
The forum was aimed at creating a platform to gain invaluable insights and expertise of senior specialists and consultants in the provision of tertiary healthcare, training and research.
Among the topics discussed were, Post Graduate Medical Education at KATH and creating an enabling environment towards a research-driven service delivery.
It was also part of the drive to bridge the gap between management and staff and acknowledge their indispensability and contributions to the realisation of the hospital’s mandate.
Additionally, it was to help actively seek their expert input and participation in improving patient care.
Prof, Addai-Mensah said regrettably, the hospital had failed to optimise the use of these rich human resources because of a lack of formal fora to engage and involve senior specialists and consultants to deliberate on how to run the affairs of the facility.
He added that the hospital was experiencing a new chapter in contemporary history that would subsequently enhance the operational resilience, through the generation of ideas, critical to the optimisation of its capacity to deliver high-quality but cost-effective sub-specialist care to patients.
The CEO stressed the need for the consultants and specialists to make amends for past omissions and rekindle their love and commitment to making KATH a better and preferred referral facility for thousands of clients.
“We owe it a duty to make the hospital far better and responsive to the needs of its clients for world-class critical services”, he stated.
The CEO assured the participants at the forum that every proposition, and decision that would be generated would be acted upon.
GNA