Health Facilities Regulatory Agency Under-Resourced

Board Chairman of the Health Facilities Regulatory Agency (HFRA), Nana Otuo Acheampong, has revealed the work of the Agency is being impeded by a lack of logistics and resources.

The Act establishing the Agency was passed in 2011 but it came into force in 2015 when its board was inaugurated.

The Agency’s main objective is to license and monitor the operations of both private and public health facilities throughout Ghana.

However, apart from occasional news about corruption and underhand dealings happening at the Agency, not much has been accomplished in terms of achieving its mandate.

Nana Otuo Acheampong, who Chairs the new HFRA Board said a key setback for ensuring that the Agency works effectively is a lack of logistics.

“Presently resources are one of our challenges. But it is one which is self-inflicted. Because with so many institutions that are to be licensed and pay fees, if we had managed it well, then resources shouldn’t be a constraint because internally you can generate," he said on current affairs programme, Hard Truth on the Joy News channel on MultiTV.

He enumerated the key challenges facing the Agency: “Accommodation is one; where they [workers] were was not fit for purpose. But they’ve moved to another place where there are insufficient rooms for the retinue of staff that are supposed to be there so we are looking for a bigger place.

“In terms of movement, apparatus like vehicles and so on, it is almost nil. So there are those challenges that have to be met and once we overcome that then can we go,” he said.

Get more from the discussion in the video below.