Co-operate to enhance health delivery

Published in the Daily Graphic on 29/03/2010, pg 32

Story: Matilda Attram
THE Deputy Minister of Health, Mr Robert Joseph Mettle-Nunoo, has called on the Medical and Dental Council to co-operate with the ministry to initiate measures that would enhance quality health service delivery in the country.
He said the country faced many challenges in the health sector which needed the contribution of the council to help reduce or eliminate them completely.
Mr Mettle-Nunoo made this call at the swearing-in ceremony of a 16-member board of the Medical and Dental Council (MDC) of Ghana in Accra.
The members include Dr Kofi Osae Adadey, Professor Afua Hesse, Dr McDamien Dedzo, Dr Felix Anyah, Dr Teye Adjase and Dr Jacob Abebrese.
Others are Dr Eric Asamoa and Dr Francis Adu-Ababio, Professor Christine Ntim-Amponsah and Professor Simon Beinakpaa Naaeder, representing the University of Ghana Medical School, and Professor Harold Stewart Amonoo-Kuofi, who is also a representative of the Committee of Vice-Chancellors.
The rest are Dr Bimpong-Buta of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, Dr Elias Sory, the Director General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr Martin Sowah, the Director General of the Ministry of Defence, Mrs Doris Ablo and Dr Joseph Rockson.
The board is to ensure the smooth running of pending activities of the council and the country at large with regard to health.
It also has the responsibility for ensuring high professional standards among medical practitioners, proper training of practitioners and keeping records of qualified practitioners.
Mr Mettle-Nunoo stated that Ghana’s health sector was facing challenges, especially with the posting of medical practitioners to rural areas because of a lack of services to motivate them.
He challenged the council to initiate measures such as good ethical standards, the responsibility for ensuring proper training of practitioners and new motivational services to promote the medical profession in the country and beyond.
He assured the council of the support of the ministry for achieving its aim, adding that “the ministry is planning with some regional hospitals to organise tutorials to enable medical practitioners to improve on their performance”.
In his statement, the Chief Director of the Ministry of Health (MoH), Dr Sylvester Anemana, observed that the absence of a council to regulate activities of medical practitioners was not the best, since it could affect the performance of practitioners.
Dr Anemana called on the council to ensure equity in the postings of medical practitioners to the rural areas of the country in order to improve on the lives of the rural people.
A representative of the council, Professor Harold Stewart Amonoo Kuofi, on behalf of the council, expressed gratitude to the management of the ministry and gave an assurance of the council’s commitment to enhance quality health service delivery to Ghanaians.