A ranking member of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health, Joseph Yieleh Chireh, has noted that challenges in the health sector remain unresolved due to the constant ministerial reshuffle at the Health Ministry.
“We have had many Health Ministers over a period of eight years. I spent just a year as the Health Minister and what do you think I can do in just one year. Sometimes ministerial reshuffles are part of the problem,” he said.
“The problems in the health sector can never be resolved if we continue to change ministers,” he added.
According to him, policy implementation required stability, consistency and an understanding of the issues and as such nothing meaningful could be achieved if ministers were regularly reshuffled.
Mr Chireh made the observation when the committee paid a working visit to the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital (CCTH) and interacted with officials of the facility to understand their challenges and to know how best to address them.
He said the Committee would work closely with the Ministry of Health (MoH) to resolve the financial and resource issues at health facilities to enable them to provide quality healthcare to the people.
Mr Chireh acknowledged the challenges hospitals and other health facilities faced, but urged the staff to continue to do their best as the Committee lobbied the Government to address their needs.
Dr Daniel Asare, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the CCTH, called on the Government to review its recent directive for health facilities to pay 34 per cent of their internally generated funds (IGF) to the government.
He said about 95 percent of clients who visited the facility were health insured, and therefore, any delays in reimbursement of health insurance claims would put a lot of stress on their finances.
He said the situation was not different in other hospitals across the country and indicated that paying 34 percent of their IGF to the government would virtually cripple their operations.
Dr Asare appealed to the Government to assist the Hospital expand its Accident and Emergency Centre as well as the Neonatal and Intensive Care Unit to better serve the people of the Central Region and beyond.
Dr. Kwabena Twum-Nuamah, Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health, assured the Hospital authorities that the Committee would work to ensure that the Government put in place the necessary modalities to address challenges in the health sector.
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Source: GNA