Dr George Amofa, Deputy Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), on Wednesday called for the establishment of Public Health Unit (PHU) within all health institutions across the country.
This, he said, would help in picking up clues on emergency cases and outbreaks, which would help in eradicating communicable diseases such as cholera, buruli ulcer and poliomyelitis among others.
Dr Amofa was speaking at the 43th Annual Council Meeting of the Christian Health Association of Ghana (CHAG), which brought together over 200 health professionals across the country in Takoradi in the Western Region.
The three-day conference under the theme: “Working with Communities to Improve Health Outcomes,” would be used to revive community healthcare as a key component in the health delivery system in the country.
Dr Amofa noted that the establishment of the PHU would also help in monitoring such communicable diseases with regular follow-ups in the communities to ensure that necessary interventions were provided.
In view of this, the GHS has prepared guidelines for the establishment of the PHUs in all health institutions.
Dr Amofa bemoaned the poor attitude of health workers towards patients, which had resulted in increase in morbidity and mortality rate and therefore called for quick response on emergency situations in order to prevent avoidable deaths.
He pledged the GHS support in helping CHAG to improving healthcare delivery in the country.
Mr Rojo Mettle-Nunoo, Deputy Minister of Health, called on the GHS to consider retaining active personnel of the service, who were above sixty years to complement the effort of those already in the system.
He, therefore, lauded CHAG for maintaining old but active health personnel, which according to him, had contributed towards quality health care in the country.
Mr Mettle-Nunoo noted that scaling-up on the achievement of the MDGs 4 and 5 called for effective collaboration with all stakeholders in all health institutions.
He noted that the sidelining of some maternity homes and Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) by GHS should be resolved since they were part of the delivery chain in order to improve health delivery in the country.
On healthcare infrastructure, Mr Mettle-Nunoo was unhappy about the numerous uncompleted projects dotted across the country and called for completion of such facilities to enhance service delivery.
Dr Gilbert Buckle, General Secretary of CHAG, noted the global need for the involvement of the community and the family in the health delivery system.
He said community empowerment had become necessary in this era to enable them to provide relevant information on family health.
Dr Buckle, therefore, called for the development of policies that would strengthen and sustain health delivery in the country.