Executive Director of Global Life Changers, Dr. James Ziekye, has urged healthcare workers to place compassion at the heart of patient care, arguing that medicine alone is not enough to deliver quality healthcare.

Addressing participants at the 2026 Annual Conference of the Christian Health Association of Ghana (CHAG), he said Christian health institutions must treat compassion as a core professional competency rather than merely a personal virtue.

Speaking on the theme, "People-Centred Customer Service Care: The Christian Way in Healthcare," Dr. Ziekye said every interaction between a health worker and a patient should reflect the healing ministry of Christ.

According to him, healthcare professionals working in CHAG facilities should recognise that every patient who walks through their doors deserves dignity, empathy and respect.

"The people who come to our facilities are not just customers. They are our brothers and sisters with feelings, expectations and needs that must be met. The church is an extension of the healing ministry of God, and we are the ambassadors of that ministry," he said.

Dr. Ziekye described customer care as a moral, legal, professional and spiritual responsibility, warning that poor treatment of patients not only undermines healthcare delivery but also erodes public confidence in health institutions.

He proposed that health facilities begin measuring compassion just as they assess other aspects of staff performance.

"I wish we could conduct compassion testing before recruiting staff, just as we conduct aptitude tests. We should also undertake compassion audits in our facilities because compassion is the foundation of our interaction with patients," he added.

Defining compassion as "the awareness of another person's suffering coupled with an active desire to relieve it," Dr. Ziekye said it goes beyond feeling sorry for patients and requires deliberate action to ease their pain.

He argued that healthcare workers who lack compassion struggle to fulfil the core purpose of their profession.

"If you lack that quality, you are not qualified to handle the children of God at the various facilities because our fathers and our mothers had this quality that enables them to be prepared. Somebody with compassion will not sit at the OPD with a phone when people ask for attention."

"Somebody with compassion will not be waiting for someone to tell you to raise up a patient that is struggling to get to the hospital. And that is a point. Do you know why most of the time patients stop coming to our facility? Yes. Some suffering are proven there. 1% do not come because they have died. 3% move away from the vicinity. 3% default after this time around because most patients are highly enlightened," he said.

Dr. Ziekye also reminded participants that patients often form their first impression of a health facility through interactions with frontline staff, including security personnel, receptionists and OPD workers.

According to him, those encounters can determine whether patients return to the same facility or seek healthcare elsewhere.

He therefore urged healthcare managers to strengthen customer service at every level of their institutions, stressing that compassion and professionalism are inseparable in delivering quality healthcare.

"A healing cup from God using our human hearts. So in that sense, we represent Jesus at every facility that we operate. Every individual customer or client that comes to us, He is coming to Jesus. He is a source. Because He is, it is in Him we live and move and have obedience. He is a source of healing. A source of inspiration. And a source of joy for the people who come to us. So we are His resource. That was our aim of the service. To be used by God to administer healing," he indicated.

The annual CHAG conference brought together managers, administrators and health professionals from Christian health institutions across Ghana to discuss strategies for strengthening people-centred healthcare while reinforcing the Christian values that underpin the association's work.

The Christian Health Association of Ghana (CHAG) is a network of Christian mission health institutions that partners with the Ministry of Health to deliver healthcare services across the country. Its facilities provide a significant share of Ghana's healthcare, particularly in rural and underserved communities, through hospitals, clinics and training institutions.