ISODEC calls for complaint desks at hospitals
The Integrated Social Development Center (ISODEC), has called on the Ghana Health Service to set up desks at all hospitals across the country for patients to lodge complaints of poor services.
Madam Agnes Gandaa, Northern Regional Programmes Co-ordinator of ISODEC, who made the call, said this would help address the numerous inefficiencies, which include disparities in the healthcare delivery system, where some patients received better treatment compared to others.
Madam Gandaa made the call in Tamale on Wednesday at a workshop organized by ISODEC for journalists on health equity and the social determinants of health, aimed at ensuring that all segments of society received equal healthcare treatment in the country.
She said there were many disparities in access to healthcare between the rich and the poor, while delays by patients before seeing a medical doctor contributed to needless deaths.
She explained that the desk would receive complaints such as unprofessional conduct of healthcare workers, issues of inadequate care and attention, and poor services, among others, so as to address them to improve the system.
Madam Gandaa said the entire health system needed re-engineering and re-tooling of staff for quality health care.
She said over-population of critical health personnel, such as doctors and nurses in urban areas, including the neglect of the rural areas, was not the best for the country, adding that “rural areas need more doctors and nurses than the urban areas, yet the situation is pathetic when you visit the rural areas.”
She also urged government to build adequate health infrastructure in all parts of the country, to enable the poor to have equal access to such facilities at their doorsteps.
Mr. Peter Yaro, a mental health expert, and facilitator of the workshop, stressed the need for improvement in healthcare facilities, to ensure that all citizens, regardless of their locations, had access to equal healthcare services.
He stressed the need to address lingering disparities in healthcare provision, to cater for the needs of society in general.
Source: GNA