Technology, backbone to future health delivery in Ghana - Expert

Imagine a health care delivery system that runs so smooth without, barriers and preferential treatments, devoid of long queues, which is timely, effective and rendered at a reduced cost! Would you not love that to happen nationwide?

Well, an expert with close to two decades experience has predicted how this can be achieved to make this dream a reality, and also help reduce the burden on doctors nationwide.

Dr. Yaw Ofori-Adjei, Head of the Medical Intensive Care Unit of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, has assured that if health professionals would embrace technology, it would increase the country’s productivity level positively, and improve upon the current woes within the health sector.

According to him, if automation is introduced into the health delivery system, though many people who are not technologically inclined would lose their jobs, the benefits would be enormous to the extent that it would save precious lives and time wasted at the health care centres, improve upon the face of health delivery, and bring the majority of the woes seen in the health sector to its knees.

Dr. Adjei was speaking at a workshop organised by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Holy Trinity Medical Centre, Dr. Felix Anyaa, in Accra last Friday.

These scheduled workshops bring most of the medical officers from both private and government entities together to enrich their knowledge-bank, since there seems to be new discoveries made day in and out.

This has been the dream of Dr. Felix Anyaa, Senior Physician, to keep his colleagues updated at all times.

Dr. Ofori Adjei revealed that Ghanaians should only believe in what “we can do” for those who are exporting this technique to help other nations within the West African region, majority of which are Ghanaians.

Again, the Member of the Chartered Institute for I.T. and a project management professional, mentioned that the over 10 million Ghanaians who are proficient in using the internet is a clear sign that we have the men who can use home-grown methodologies to boost this process.

According to him, if Ghanaians would stop the attitude of shirking new things and embrace technology, backed by the political will to invest into technology, the health care system would be enhanced.

He admitted that though it is difficult implementing such (new) policies, when there is a will and proper plans are being put in place, those who are IT inclined can develop some of the most advanced database software that would benefit the country immensely.

When The Chronicle enquired from him about the bottlenecks currently hindering the nation in following the footsteps of what the advanced nations have infused into the systems that are working for them and not working here, he narrated: “Primarily, like any infrastructure that is to be put in place, it takes significant investments to be able to put in an IT system to cover all the facets of the hospital’s operations (in an institution as big as Korle Bu, which is still using the manual process).

“You need to think about the network that would be put in place. Not only the network, but they have to be secured, back-end systems that are going to provide for these services to the end-users, how robust are they? Would they survive single failure or how many failures would they survive before they become available? What are the backup systems you have in place; power supply, disaster recovery sites,” and many others.

He expressed that embarking on such a system into such a process as a nation, the system has to be designed in such a way that schedule maintenance(s) backups and all would be permitted on this route, for the moment you begin such process, there is no going back, and thus, all professional measures must be considered to keep the system ‘active’ and reap the benefits it comes with.

The IT enthusiast though, expressed the fear that corruption maybe a key reason why health professionals are not going ‘high-tech,’ but, however, ‘prophesied’ that in the near future, technology is going to be the backbone to health care delivery in the country, and the earlier we embrace it, the better it would be for the nation.

Thus, it is high time these programmes are being piloted for all professionals to have the feel of it, and gradually prepare them towards the inevitable, by practicing it for some time and not just jump into, lest the numerous problems that may deter them from using it.

Prof. S. B. Naeeder, Chairman of the function, indicated that medicine is changing with time and there are a lot of researches conducted on a timely basis.

This is what doctors and health officers need to keep abreast, with the recent empirical studies coming up, hence the need to gather, share knowledge, and get the necessary credits to keep their licenses upgraded while working in their fields.

He added that there are other programmes like this ongoing in many other health facilities nationwide, and they have been designed and approved by the Ghana Medical and Dental Council to help doctors upgrade their knowledge and perfect their day-to-day management of patients across the country.