Routine health management no longer viable - DG-GHS

Ho, Feb 10, GNA - Dr. Appiah Denkyirah, Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) on Wednesday admonished Health Managers to reflect current realities in their approaches to tackling challenges in the health sector.

This, he said was because emerging realities in the health sector could no longer be contained within the routine mode but by systems that drive activities in a business-like manner.

Dr Denkyirah's diagnosis and prescription were tended at the 2015 annual performance review Conference of the Volta Regional Directorate of the GHS.

It was on the theme: 'Achieving improved health outcomes through the use of quality improvement approaches'.

He said there must be transparency in decision making to ensure real time deliverables.

There should also be detailed financial accountability for specific activities to minimize infractions as well as dynamic corporate governance system to deepen the relevance of leadership at all levels of the health delivery machinery.

Dr Denkyirah asked Health Managers to liaise and co-ordinate their activities with the municipal and district assemblies to ensure that the citizenry owe health issues at the local levels and thereby taking control of their own health.

He reminded the Health Managers that resources would continue to dwindle as a global reality, so the little resources available must be used in an integrated manner.

Dr Denkyirah told the Managers that the Service's partners were unhappy at its inability to get commodities to where people needed them most.

He said from September this year, 2016, a system of scheduled delivery to all points of need would begin and strictly enforced to meet timelines and minimize the risk of losses.

Dr Denkyirah asked the Health Managers to own and domesticate the Social Development Goals (SDGs) which unlike the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is a bottom-up product with a cost to it.

He called on Health Managers in the Volta Region to use every available platform to address the alarming trend of teenage pregnancy in the Region.

In 2014, 14.5 percent of Ante Natal Clinic (ANC) attendances in the Region were by adolescents under 19 years rising to 15.1 percent in 2015.

At 11.2 percent, Ho recorded the lowest of such pregnancies in the Region with Adaklu District coming tops with 23.2 percent.

'One major challenge facing the Region has to do with teenage pregnancy, Dr Joseph Teye Nuertey, the Regional Director of the GHS lamented.

He said there was the need for massive mobilization of all segments of the populace in the Region to stem the tide, which has reached overwhelming proportions.

GNA