NGOs establish health complaint system
A pilot Health Complaint Management System is expected to be rolled out this month in selected communities in the Central and Western Regions, to improve health service delivery.
The programme, which forms part of the STAR-Ghana funded “Projecting Citizens Voices for Health Accountability” project, is being executed by the Alliance for Reproductive Health Rights (ARHR), a non-governmental organisation (NGO), in collaboration with other partner organisations.
Ms Claire Cogswell, ARHR’s Advocacy Officer, disclosed these at a workshop, organised in Accra on Tuesday, to outdoor the initiative, and to train personnel from Agona East, Juaboso, and Shama Districts, and Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abirem Municipality, who would help to implement the system.
She said the initiative was funded by STAR-Ghana, a multi-donor pooled funding arrangement made up of European Union, Danish International Development Agency, United States Agency for International Development and Department For International Development.
Ms Cogswell explained that the system would assist clients to seek redress on their grievances concerning health service delivery.
She expressed optimism that the project would heighten accountability expected from health service providers and engage users of the services.
Ms Cogswell said: “the system has “Ombudsman Desks”, manned weekly at select times by trained personnel from ARHR’s partner organisations.”
She indicated that the system would be launched in Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abirem and Agona East in the Central Region, and Shama and Juaboso Districts in the Western Region.
Ms Cogswell explained that the Desks were created in response to an earlier research, which suggested that fear of victimisation by health officers was common reason patients failed to report on substandard medical services, particularly in rural and less-populated areas.
She said: “We hope the pilot communities will embrace the opportunity to access this unique system, which will serve as a platform for any person to confidentially voice his or her grievances, concerns or complaints in a private space”.
Ms Cogswell pledged that the ARHR would continue to work with other NGOs to ensure that the sexual reproductive health rights of especially the poor, marginalized and women of reproductive age were protected irrespective of socio-economic status, gender or race.
The ARHR, established in 2004, is a network of Ghanaian NGOs promoting rights-based approach to sexual reproductive health.
Source: GNA