Government urged to equip hospitals to reduce brain drain

Mampong (Ash), April 16, GNA - Providing health facilities with the basic logistics and equipment for efficient service delivery may help reduce the brain drain of health professionals, said staff of the Ashanti Mampong District Hospital in the Sekyere West District. They said obsolete and inadequate "essential equipment" in many health institutions across the country were not only eroding the moral of health professionals but were also compelling some of them to look elsewhere for better working environment.

These views were expressed by heads of departments of the hospital at the end of their first quarter performance review meeting held at the weekend.

"In fact this hospital, for instance, which is second to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi lacks some basic equipment in almost all the units", said Mr Ofori Amanfo, the Hospital Administrator. "This puts daily stress and frustration on management and staff as we attempt to improve the quality of services, especially with the introduction of the National Health Insurance Scheme", Mr Amanfo said. The workers have, therefore, appealed to the Ministry of Health, Ghana Health Service and their development partners to refocus attention on the provision of essential hospital equipment to motivate health professionals to stay in order for the NHIS to succeed. "I believe that we just need a little bit of sacrifice and commitment at all levels to ensure that our hospitals are well equipped to meet the demands of modern health care delivery and also to motivate the few dedicated health professionals to stay, despite the problem of poor service conditions", Dr Emmanuel Ahiable, the Medical Superintendent of the hospital, told GNA.

Dr Ahiable said the government should encourage more private sector partnership in health care delivery, especially at local level, through tax relief and other incentives since it is clear that the government alone could not meet the health needs of the poor.

He commended staff of the hospital for their dedication to duty, despite the difficulties, including the frequent shortage of water, inadequate equipment and the unruly behaviour of some clients. Dr Ahiable said more would be required of them as the NHIS replaces the "cash and carry regime", "because more people would be using the services of the hospital than before", promising that management was doing its best to improve upon the working environment.