Health delivery could improve with dedication – DG of GHS
Dr. Ebenezer Appiah-Denkyira, Director General of the Ghana Health Services, on Friday said says health delivery could improve with more dedication.
“We need to move away from routine behavior and challenge ourselves some more.”
Dr. Appiah-Denkyira said this in Accra on Friday, at the end of the 2012 Annual Review of Health Sector Performance for the Greater Accra Regional Health Services Administration.
He told health workers that there was the need to be very passionate about their job saying, “what we are doing is a divine mission.”
Dr. Appiah-Denkyira urged health workers to identify health hazard flash points, such as potential situations for disease outbreak, adding that, preemptive behavior was crucial to safe guarding public health.
He also urged health workers to be innovative in solving problems of health delivery, and avoid depending too much on external help.
Dr. Linda Vanotoo, Greater Accra Regional Director of the Ghana Health Services, said the review afforded the region to focus on what happened in the year 2012 and plan effectively for this year.
Touching on some highlights of the review, she said there were increased levels of people who reported with cases of diabetes and hypertension.
Dr. Vanotoo said that was quite unfortunate, since the two were lifestyle diseases.
She advised that it was important for people to be health conscious and know the implications of their lifestyle on their health.
Dr. Vanotoo said cases of maternal mortality as well as still births, reduced in the year 2012, compared to the year 2011.
Touching on mental health, she said the review indicated that a lot of people were not very sound mentally.
She said while many women suffered from depression, several men were addicted to substance abuse.
Dr. Vanotoo said it was important for centres to be created to help people deal with psychological problems that lead to depression, for mental health to be properly addressed.
She said efforts would be made to ensure the availability of blood and blood products in health facilities, adding that, many maternal deaths were due to the lack of blood and blood products.
Dr. Vanotoo said health specialists would be deployed to rural communities to help improve upon health delivery.
She said the limited finances of the service would be used more efficiently saying that, “we would support staff to be more effective, despite their limited resources.”
Source: GNA