Gov’t must train paradental people and equip Dentistry in rural areas - CEO of Advocate Healthcare

Close to 30 Staffs of Advocate Healthcare main branch has been awarded by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dr. Joseph K. Nimako-Boateng to mark the 10th anniversary of the dental firm.

According to him, the staff has contributed to the success story of Advocate Healthcare with a lot of hard work and tenacity for the 10 years in existence; hence the need to award them for helping the company grow.

Speaking to the media in an interview, Dr. Joseph K. Nimako-Boateng expressed his gratitude to the staff for going the extra mile in taking care of patients and clients with excellence.

“What has contributed to the success of Advocate Healthcare is that there has been a lot of hard work, tenacity, and but primarily it has been God’s grace. We have a great team; my staff is wonderful who work very well. They go the extra mile in taking care of patients and clients. Whatever they do, they do it with a lot of excellence. For me, that has contributed to the success of Advocate Healthcare for 10 years”, he stated.

He disclosed, however, that for 10 years in dental service, he has been able to employ close to 30 staff in this facility with branches in Nigeria and at a point, had branches in Sierra-Leon and even in Ivory Coast.

“…but we have closed some of them down. We are re-strategizing because we had issues in some of our Nigerian branches and the mode of operation. We are taking a step back but we still have operations in Nigeria which is doing very well”, he disclosed.

Talking of the challenges in the dental industry, the CEO of Advocate Healthcare said that the rural areas lack equipment as dentistry in Ghana is mainly an urban practice; thus, dentistry is not readily available in the deprived areas as they are in the cities.

He again mentioned Dental laboratory support as another major challenge in the dental industry; adding that, as part of Advocate Healthcare Corporate Social Responsibility, his dental firm has worked in that area to promote dental laboratory support for dentists in the country.

“I think that with the right leadership, we will be able to push the dentistry forward to the next level”, he indicated.

Dr. Nimako-Boateng said that even though it is a good step for training quite a number of dentists in the country, they need to be resourced in order for them work with their skills as there is no point in posting them to places with no chair and other equipment to work with.

“There is no point posting somebody to a place where is no chair and nothing to use to provide service. We need to actually resource the dentists being trained to work. They don’t work in isolation; they work with paradental staff and so we need to train dental nurses, dental equipment technicians and this is because when the equipment we use to work break down, sometimes it is difficult to find people to repair them for us”, he suggested.

He reiterated that “if the government is training dentists, there should be a holistic approach to train all the other supporting people so that the dental work can go on effectively”.

The Special Guest at the 10th anniversary of Advocate Healthcare, Dr. Ernest Konadu Asiedu, Head of National Quality Management Unit for the Ministry of Health talking to the media also commended the management and staff of Advocate Healthcare for pursuing excellence in customer care and ensuring high standard quality healthcare.

"I am excited to say that this 10th anniversary of Advocate Healthcare, the management of this facility is motivating the staff enough to give up their best", he commended.

He again stated that the government in December 2016 has launched National Healthcare Qualities Strategy to run from 2017 up until 2021 which will ensure that patients and communities are at the center care of healthcare facilities.

He further mentioned that the government expects all the health institutions at different levels and agencies to ensure that they operate within the 7 strategy objectives the government has outlines; thus, institutions should be nice to patients in order for them to have a better experience at the healthcare they receive.

"We are urging the institutions to create a certain environment to motivate workers internally in terms of incentives and awards system", he charged.