Director- General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Anthony Nsiah-Asare, says the government has made budgetary allocation to employ a total of 27,000 health professionals this year as against 16,000 engaged in 2017.

According to the Director-General, the huge backlog of unemployed health professionals to be engaged would be Pharmacists, Accountants, Administrators, Nurses, Doctors, Laboratory Scientists and other paramedical staff to enhance quality healthcare delivery.

Dr Nsiah-Asare made this known when he and members of the Governing Council of the Ghana Health Service led by the Chairman of the Council, Dr Yaw Yeboah, toured health facilities including hospitals, CHPS Compounds and Health Centers in the Central Region.

The tour was to assist the Director-General and members of the Governing Council to ascertain the challenges the facilities faced and help find lasting solutions to them.

The team toured the Trauma Specialist Hospital in Winneba, Ekumfi Eyisam CHPS Compound, Anomabo Health Centre and the Saltpond Hospital.

He said the rationale behind the employment of skilled health workers by the government was to fill vacancies existed to improve quality health care.

Dr Nsiah-Asare said new hospitals would soon be opened in the Northern, Upper East, Upper West, Central and Western Regions including and districts and CHPS Compounds, hence the need to recruit more health professionals to fill the gap to deliver quality care.    

At the Winneba Trauma and Specialised Hospital, Dr Nsiah-Asare said the hospital was built especially to cater for Abidjan Togo international Highways accidents and emergency cases that may be referred to the hospital.

The Director-General noted that the more than six doctors, two specialists and less than 200 nurses at the hospital were woefully inadequate to cater for its clients.

At the Ekumfi Eyisam, the team interacted with the staff of a CHIP Zone and pledged to offer them motorbikes to promote health delivery in the hinterlands.

Dr Dereck Acheampong Bonsu, Medical Superintendent of Saltpond Hospital, briefed the entourage about on measures put in place to implement the e-Health Policy.

Dr Bonsu said the Saltpond Hospital, which was built in 1920, lacked equipment and adequate human resource to enhance quality health care.

Dr Yaw Yeboah, Chairman of Governing Council, said the members have decided not to sit in Accra to receive reports from regional, districts and Zones on health issues but deemed it fit to proceed to the doorsteps of the facilities to know the problems themselves.

He called on the health managers, especially nurses to do away with negative attitudes towards patients, which he noted created bad perceptions for the clients.

Dr Yeboah called on the managers of the Hospitals to use their Internally Generated Funds (IGF) to train specialists in their facilities to take care of referral cases rather than relying on GHS to post specialists to their facilities.

The team also paid a courtesy call on the Central Regional Minister, Mr Kwamena Duncan and Mr Thomas Adjei Baffoe, Deputy Central Regional Minister to discuss matter affecting health promotion in the region.

Dr Alexis Nang-Beifuba, Central Regional Director of Health Services commended the Director-General and Council members for their initiative which will enhance health delivery.

He expressed the hope that all shortcomings and problems identified during their tour would be solved to improve the system.