Resetting The Health Delivery System To Deliver

Ghana’s health delivery sector is about one of the best in the sub-region, Africa and the Commonwealth.

That fact is manifested in the record number of students from the sub-region and even Europe travelling down to access professional training in our medical and nursing schools. 

But that is also why nationals from neighbouring countries at a time conspired with non-Ghanaian national to access our National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). 

On account of that accomplishment and record, Ghana directly and indirectly exports doctors and nurses, but also have patients coming to Ghana to pay for treatment at our teaching hospitals and regional facilities. 

That is why Ghanaians got agitated when a son of the soil died days ago with top-notch health delivery facilities managers being called out by government and the general public for censure. 

Fortunately, the report is out on the work of the committee that was commissioned by the government and, for that matter, the Ministry of Health. 

Since the cited state health delivery facilities are manned by leaders, persons and professionals with clear responsibilities, some names popped up, though in the opinion of The Weekend Inquirer, the conversation is more about an abiding reset than a blame game.

With doctors and nurses usually taking the flak and, justifiably so, in an environment where equipment and logistics are not always available and modern, one way to prevent a recurrence of the accident and incident is to review work done by other earlier committees. 

That ambulances were not equipped also tells a story of negligence and deficits in logistics supply and availability, aside the absence of skilled personnel to offer transfusions or apply resuscitation mechanisms on the patient in the ambulance, ahead of regular surgery or other treatment methods. 

When a sick person or an accident victim arrives at a hospital, it is because he or she could not help it. As doctors and nurses would admit, a health facility is not an entertainment centre or restaurant. 

But that is not to say the doctor and nurse must be blamed, because by the Hippocratic Oath, doctors particularly admit that theirs is to save lives, not evade patients or push them to other facilities with the same challenges. 

In the same breath, the health services directorate must ensure that the systems and structures work, with access to equipment and logistics easy and convenient in delivering quality, affordable healthcare for citizens and non-citizens alike.  

The other leg to the sad conversation is that health workers here in Ghana work under pressure and are compelled, most of the time, to innovate and engineer access to logistics, including space on hospital bed or access to oxygen as a critical intervention. 

The temptation to offload patients to other facilities become natural, culminating in our collective tragedy. 

It is imperative that those in charge of our national purse learn how to cut and paste in needy, strategic sectors in saving lives. What is the use of an ambulance if it cannot be equipped with skilled personnel and oxygen or infusions to manage a situation till a critically ill patient sees the doctor and his team? 

What became of the values of prudent spending or corruption fight, including galamsey and billing discrepancies in the energy and water or telcos sectors? 

It is sad that our doctors, away from home perform creditably, but within get challenged delivering and managing high level state facilities. 

The truth is that ultimately the buck must stop somewhere, between the state actors and delivery managers and supervisors of facilities.

Thankfully, the committee has made recommendations. Let us just hope it is not paperwork, as usual.