By Dennis Peprah
Abesim-Sunyani, Aug. 25, GNA – The Christian Health Association of Ghana (CHAG) has lauded the excellent contributions of the Ghana Adventist Health Services (GAHS) towards quality health care services delivery and outcomes in the country.
Dr. Peter Yeboah, the Executive Director of CHAG, who gave the commendation, said GAHS was the second highest contributor to the CHAG’s Outpatient Department (OPD) cases of more than 6.4 million in 2021, after the Catholic Health Services (CHSs).
The CHSs recorded more than 3.4 million OPD cases, representing 53.79 per cent while CHAG recorded 808,743 cases, representing 12.63 per cent in the period, Dr. Yeboah explained.
He was addressing the opening session of the 2022 Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the GAHS at Abesim, near Sunyani.
The AGM was on the theme: “GAHS Worker: A Facilitator for Rebranding, Realigning, Restructuring and Repositioning of GAHS towards Better Health Outcome” and attended by senior managers of the association.
On in-patient admissions and care, Dr. Yeboah said GAHS recorded 80,186 cases which represented 13.4 per cent of CHAG’s total of 597,623 in 2021, with the CHSs contributing 337,968, a representation of 56.6 per cent.
Describing GAHS as a fast-growing association, Dr. Yeboah said three health facilities within the Association were among the top 30 performing CHAG health facilities in terms of high volumes of health care services in the country.
They include the SDA Hospital in Koforidua, SDA Hospital at Kwadaso in Kumasi and the SDA Hospital at Fiapre in the Sunyani West Municipality.
Dr Yeboah said GAHS was not only the second largest health provider service within CHAG, but also the third largest provider of healthcare in the country, the first and second being government and the CHSs respectively.
He stressed the CHAG’s determination to build a resilient network to position the country to achieve the universal health coverage, through effective and strengthened leadership capacity, reliable partnerships, financial viability as well as ability to respond to emergencies.
“CHAG provides about 7.5 per cent health infrastructure and between 30 and 40 per cent of health care in the country”, Dr. Yeboah stated.
He, therefore, asked GAHS to leverage on technological advancement and reliable and robust data, as well as competent, well-motivated, dedicated and resourceful human capital, and urged the Association to add value to existing and new products to meet the emerging demands of clients.
Dr Yeboah advised the Association to work hard to consolidate its gains by re-focusing and filling gaps and overlaps, as well as collaborate and cooperate with other health services providers.
“Patients nowadays make choices based on informed decisions and they explore and locate better environments for quality and well-enhanced health services. So, we must also strive for enhanced quality healthcare and stem the tide of internal staff attrition.
“We can never be sustainable without coming out with competent and motivated and well-inspired staff to take leadership positions,” he added.
Dr Yeboah said excellent service delivery and improved high-quality services attracted investors and urged the association to strive for excellence.
Madam Justina Owusu-Banahene, the Bono Regional Minister, asked the association to always review and monitor its activities, saying periodic evaluation would ensure that milestones set were met to culminate in attainment of indicators.
“Such a review will provide a graphical and pictorial appreciation of your performance within your operational scope for the necessary lessons and recommendations to be taken on board for better service delivery,” she said.
As one of the critical sectors of the economy, Mad. Owusu-Banahene explained the government had prioritised health as one of its key development agenda, and accordingly allocated enormous resources to support the sector towards the improvement of quality health delivery.
She said the government had implemented several interventions and more of such were in the offing to further consolidate the gains being made in the country’s health sector.
“A few interventions worth mentioning are the recruitment of health personnel to augment service delivery, infrastructural development, vehicular support and more significantly the revamping of our health emergency response system by providing ambulances across the country as well as drone services for essential medicines,” Mad Owusu-Banahene stated.
She stressed the government’s commitment to making the biggest investment in the nation’s health sector to address the gaps within the healthcare service accessibility through infrastructure development through the Agenda 111 Project.
“Although this is a highly capital-intensive investment, the government is un-relented in seeing to its implementation and as such within the months ahead. We will begin to see a massive change in the health sector landscape when most of these infrastructure projects begin to take shape across the country, with its primary objective of making healthcare accessible to all”, Mad Owusu-Banahene added.
GNA