Medical practitioners must be diligent and competent – Sekyi Addo
Mr Kweku Sekyi Addo, Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications, on Tuesday stressed the need for medical practitioners to show some level of diligence and competence in taking decisions on behalf of their patients.
He said every individual that walks into their consulting rooms deserve more care, attention and compassion.
Mr Sekyi Addo was speaking at the 12th Annual Public Lecture organised by the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) under the theme, “Improving the quality of care to achieve the health related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)” to discuss a range of national and international topical health issues.
He said the least patients expected from medical doctors or nurses was to put them at ease and re-assure them of good health and that could be done successfully through communication.
He said communication was an effective tool that could be employed by medical practitioners to establish that cordial relationship between them and their patients and also give them hope.
He said patients visit doctors because they trust and believe that a touch or friendly communication could heal their illnesses just as the health workers also depend on government to deliver its promises to make it easier for them to do their duties.
Mr Sekyi Addo admitted that infrastructure and resources in the country’s health facilities were woefully inadequate to give the health workers the pleasure to interact with their patients.
He suggested the introduction of telemedicine to ease the burden on doctors and other health officials.
Dr Lydia Dsane-Selby, Director, Clinical Audit, of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) reminded the public that the scheme covered the whole package of health care in the country.
She said the full package from the Out Patient Department services, bed, food, ward fees, through consultations and drugs were being borne by the NHIS so long as the patient is registered with the scheme.
She said all persons under 18 years of age as well as the poor and vulnerable do not pay premium and encouraged those who fall in that category to access the facility.
Mr Sylvester Mensah, Chief Executive Officer of the National Health Insurance Authority, stressed the need for healthcare delivery workers to hold their regulatory bodies in check to ensure that they did not focus entirely on their welfare at the detriment of that of the patient.
He said “Until that is done they would continue to put the blame on the doctors,’’ he added.
Mr Stephen Kemetse, Cluster Head at the West Africa Monetary Zone, speaking on “designing a patient-centred quality healthcare system: what matters to the patient’’ said solutions to problems in the health sector lies with those working in the sector and not politicians.
He mentioned the lack of patient-centred in health service delivery, lack of strong and visible leadership to instil respect in the organisation as some of the factors affecting the sector.
Mr Kemetse said it was easier to make political commitments but what matters most was how to ensure that mission and vision cascade down to job description of the health workers to ensure daily compliance.
He called for a change in responsibilities where medical doctors had to see what they were doing as responsibility and work towards improving healthcare delivery system in the country.
Source: GNA