The unannounced visit was in response to public complaints about negative attitude of health personnel and shortage of water at the facility.

The Minister and his team were taken through the facility by Mr Zakariah Yakubu, the Head of Administration at the Regional Hospital to key areas at the hospital including; the Paediatric, emergency, Gynaecology wards, the out-Patient Department (OPD) and the new hospital block.

The Minister said he was impressed by the sanitation situation at the hospital compared to his last visit a couple of months ago and charged the hospital staff to adopt prudent customer care practices to ensure that their clients appreciated their services. “The patients are your clients. They need to be well served, by according them all the courtesies they deserve. Remember, negative attitudes towards them go further to compound their conditions” he indicated.

Mr Bukari who emphasised on client care, noted that as the Regional Hospital, it was the first point of call for all emergencies from the other districts and said it was incumbent on management of the hospital to ensure that service delivery was not compromised to disturb the confidence in people who visit the hospital to access health care.

He bemoaned the practice where medical doctors grow in the service to become administrators in the face of dwindling numbers of doctors at the facilities in the region and said it was time such doctors looked beyond the fringe benefits accruing to themselves and endeavour to work for humanity “because the patients who come here are our relatives, we are all one and so we need to give off our best in serving them”.

The Regional Minister who has been nick-named “Action Man” said he believed in action in resolving health related issues “I cannot wait to see the problems confronting this hospital resolved. That is why I immediately put my REGSEC together to come and see what your challenges are and verify if what members of the public complained about was true. I can see that it is not completely so, but do not relent, do more to help our sick brothers and sisters”.

The “action man” announced that measures were in place to equip the new hospital block with modern and sophisticated equipment, adding that “through the initiative of my team and your senior management, I have put before cabinet and justified why we need about GHC20 million to stock this hospital to a befitting state of the art facility to address our health needs locally to cut off ambulance and other unbudgeted bills our people go through at the Tamale Teaching Hospital and other health facilities”

According to the Minister, the proposed budget when approved would cater for all major equipment and machinery for healthcare to attract more clients even from neighbouring Burkina Faso and Togo so that the hospital could generate some income internally to manage other urgent needs.

 “It will also be used to construct a modern mortuary facility, rehabilitate some of the residential facilities and construct new ones to attract more health workers to the region, especially the regional hospital”.

Mr Zakariah Yakubu, Head of Administration at the Regional hospital who led the Minister and his team to tour the hospital mentioned the lack of water, the lack of Doctors and Doctors’ refusal to accept postings to the region and to the facility as major challenges confronting the hospital.

He explained that the task at giving audience to patients and other people who accessed healthcare services at the hospital was a herculean one that the facility consistently endeavoured to address to ensure that clients were satisfied with the services provided by the hospital.

He recalled the last visit of the Minister and the discussion thereafter and said management since then had put in place series of pragmatic and practical contingencies to ensure that sanitation and services were immediately improved, hence the contrary outcome as experienced by the Minister in his confirmation.