The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) has called for the appointment of a new management board for the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH).
According to the GMA, despite the intervention of the President in appointing a new acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for the hospital, the fundamental problems that led to the new appointment still existed.
The GMA said it was clear that if the new CEO worked with the old management board, the current situation was not likely to change.
The GMA made the call in a press statement issued by its President, Dr Kwabena Opoku Adusei, at the end of the association’s 3rd National Executive Council (NEC) meeting at Prampram on Saturday.
Appoint CEOs
“The Ghana Medical Association, therefore, calls on the Minister of Health and for that matter, the President, to, as a matter of urgency, appoint a new management board for the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital to support the new CEO, especially now that the board chairman has resigned,” the statement added.
Recent happenings at KBTH with respect to the management of the hospital, it said, left much to be desired.
“It is important to note that the proper management of the hospital mirrors the quality of care provided by the facility,” the GMA stressed in the statement.
It added that currently the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) and the Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH) do not have substantive CEOs, and, therefore, the President should take steps to appoint substantive CEOs for all the teaching hospitals.
The association said it had cause in the past to write to the President to protest the appointment of non-health personnel to head major health institutions, adding that it believed that the core functions of health institutions were the provision of good health service for clients and the community at large.
In that light, the statement said: “the Medical and Dental Practitioner is the traditional leader of the health service team and plays a pivotal role in the provision of good health service.”
Relevant expertise
The statement said it would be suicidal and inappropriate for medical and dental practitioners to be pushed aside when it came to the management of major health institutions.
It added that the GMA was hopeful that medical and dental practitioners, with the requisite managerial training and skills, would be considered for those appointments to enhance the healthcare delivery at the country’s major hospitals.
Source: Daily Graphic