The Ghana Health Services council has called on health professionals to accept posting to any part of the country, especially the deprived communities.
This, the council said would enable them to embrace deprived area incentives and transfer their know-how and expertise to underserved areas in order to help bridge the gap in health professionals distribution across the country.
In a message on behalf of the council at the Annual Savannah Regional Health Sector Performance Review Conference held at the Unity Centre in Damongo, Dr. Kenneth Appiah said the council as part of its oversight role will ensure the appointment of qualified officers to fill vacant management positions at all service levels in order to critically strengthen leadership and governance capacity.
According to him, the Council intends to support management to prioritize staff welfare and motivation especially, in the areas of suitable accommodation and incentive packages.
This, in the view of the council, will inspire the staff to enable them deliver the best possible health service to the people of the country and achieve the Universal Health Coverage Road Map.
"We shall support management to prioritize staff welfare and motivation to enable the staff deliver the best possible health service for the people of the country. We shall press for full implementation of deprived area incentives including provision of suitable accommodation to attract health professionals to deprived areas.
"Our dear health workers are encouraged to embrace these incentives and accept posting to any part of the country," he said.
The council member challenged health professionals to rise above the challenges of COVID-9 and strive in greater effort to improve the public image of the service by removing the perception of poor customer care.
He called on the District Assemblies, corporate bodies and philanthropists to come to the aid of the service, particularly in the area of accommodation.
Whilst, commending the region's effort and remarkable achievements over the years, he called on all health professionals to rededicate themselves to the mandate of the service and work diligently towards the achievement of the goals and objectives the service has set for itself.
Dr. Chrysantus Kubio, the Savannah Regional Director of Health Services bemoaned the unwillingness of medical officers to accept posting to the infant Savannah Region.
This he said was hampering against the effort of the service to ensure a responsive and resilient healthcare delivery system that meets the health needs of the people in the region.
He disclosed that 85% of medical doctors posted to the region in the year under review failed to report.
"In the year under review, the region received 1,133 new staff, out of which 225 failed to report, representing 20% posting rejection rate. Going into specific professions, Medical Officers' rejection rate was 85%. This calls for stakeholder deliberation at the various Municipal and District Assembly levels to device means and attract these critical staff to accept posting to our region," he said.
According to him, region still depends on its mother region, the Northern Regional Health Directorate Medical Stores for support, encouraging well-meaning individuals, the District Assemblies and Organizations to come to the aid of the service in terms of logistics.
The Savannah Regional Minister, Saaed Muhazu Jibreal commended all the health staff and development partners for the immense contribution and hard work which resulted in the modest gains in the health indicators in the year under review.
He said there can be no meaningful socio-economic development in any country where there is high disease burden, stressing that, "health is wealth".
The minister decried the perceived negative attitude of some staff towards clients and work, adding that, the ongoing industrial unrest at the West Gonja Hospital by Medical Officers is a case in point.
According to him, government was making effort through the Ministry of Health to address the transportation needs of health facilities in the new regions.
The conference brought together key players in the health sector and their partners, including all health directors in the various municipalities and districts in the region to assess the overall health performance as a region, discuss priorities and commit to working together to further enhance improvement in the objectives the service has set for itself under the theme, "ensuring comprehensive service delivery in the midst of a pandemic".
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