According to Mr. Segbefia, the second phase of the project, which was expected to cost about 48 million dollars would be paid for by the University after an agreement was reached for the institution to guarantee the loan.

This, he said, meant that the University would be responsible for the payment of the loan for that phase of the project, and handle the running costs of the hospital after five years.

“The whole idea of this project was that there was a phase 2, which at the time, was going to cost us $48 million. That was a loan that had to be guaranteed by the University of Ghana. By so doing, it meant that when the loan is taken out, the University of Ghana would be responsible for making the payments on the $50 million, not the $217 million. That is why it was important that they had management control. The whole hospital’s running costs was going to be dealt with by government for only five years. After that the running costs plus the $50 million had to be paid for by the running of the hospital,” he said on Point Blank on Eyewitness News.

“It became imperative that Legon, that was meant to guarantee that loan was to be involved in the management of the hospital. From Day 1, it was crafted in the manner in which Legon would have some level of management control and Board of Director control of the hospital.”

The ongoing tussle between the University and the Ministry of Health over the management of the facility, has been suggested as the reason it remains idle despite being commissioned in 2016 by the President John Dramani Mahama.

Despite the initial assurance that a concrete announcement on the resolution of the impasse would be made at the end of last week, the two parties have been unable to reach a compromise.

However, Alex Segbefia stated that, while the University of Ghana would run the facility, the Health Ministry would still be involved as was the case with the Christian Health Association of Ghana (CHAG) hospitals.

According to him, the only uncertainty over the management of the hospital’s facilities was in relation to the training suites which was expected to be resolved after discussions between the two stakeholders.

“I believe the [debate] over the management is a non-starter. There was always going to be Ministry of Health involvement because of the recruitment of staff, because of the people who have already been trained, we sent people to Israel for training. That was already on the cards. The Ministry of Health is not in charge of the CHAG hospitals, but we are involved in their staffing and the recruitment of staff, and we have a good liaison with them. This would have been no different. There was also a question mark as to whether we would leave the training suites with Legon on its own or to be co-managed with the Ministry of Health to ensure that we had training facilities right across the country, not just for those Legon wanted to put through training because we saw it as a national asset as well,” he said.

“The only question of complete management was with the training suites. Other than that, it was meant to be run by Legon. They would have full control at a certain point. Whether or not Legon took the decision to go with some advice as to whether they wanted to draw in expertise management to assist or not, was a matter that Legon was going to debate with the Ministry of Health. But the whole idea was that Legon was going to manage it.”

Background

The UG Medical Centre, which had its first phase completed was ready to commence operations after being inaugurated by former President John Mahama in after completion in November 2016.

The facility has been idle since the commissioning of its first phase in January 2017, because authorities of the University are at odds with the Health Ministry on who should manage the facility.

Whereas the University believes processes leading to the construction of the facility gives it a direct oversight role of the Medical Centre, the current Ministry of Health under the Akufo-Addo government thinks otherwise.

A Deputy Minister of Health, Kingsley Aboagye Gyedu, had earlier said government currently needed about $6 million to make the facility operational, and an additional $50 million to complete the phase two of the project.

In 2012, the government signed a contract with Messrs. Engineering and Development Consultant (EDC) of Israel to build the first phase of the facility.

The University of Legon designated 400 acres of land for the entire project. About 800 personnel were said to be needed to get the facility fully operational.

There’s currently an ongoing meeting between government and the University management as well as other stakeholders on the way forward.

Blame NDC for non-functional CHPS compounds – Segbefia

Also speaking on the state of non-functional CHPS compounds in the country, Alex Segbefia conceded that the previous National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration should be held responsible for some of the abandoned facilities.

According to him, a major reason for the sad state of affairs, was the lack of accommodation for staff.

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By: Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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According to him the decision which has compelled government to also re-introduce the quota system for nursing training institutions is ill-informed and will only “create difficulties” for the government.

[contextly_sidebar id=”RLJH9C8DQtnulAzGuXuEWZA2N5RULqaX”]“I think that they are creating difficulties for themselves because the allowance is not something that should be brought back at this stage,” he said on Eyewitness News on Wednesday.

Government on Wednesday announced the re-introduction of the quota system which was scrapped by the Mahama government together with the trainee allowances.

Mr. Segbefia explained that they scrapped the allowances and tried introducing the trainees to the student loan scheme to boost admissions into the health institutions.

He however said the laws at the time prevented trainees from accessing the loan scheme but said they were in the process of formulating the necessary policies to make that possible before they were kicked out of office.

The former minister insisted that they had good intentions for the trainee nurses including exporting them to other countries for foreign exchange.

“We had said by this time that we will pay them 150GHc but we were hoping to change the law if we had come back to power and the student loan was available, we would not have gone back to dealing with the allowances we would have said that this is the student loan, apply for it like anybody else and go to work. And when you finish what we will give you as a guarantee is that we will try and employ you even on a staggered basis but we will make sure that we employ you because we need all the nurses.”

“We were looking as part of our long term programme was that just the same way we were employing doctors from Cuba we thought that if were able to get fully qualified nurses we had a few African countries which had shown interest in us exporting full time nurses to them if they required it so we were not worried about the number of nurses coming out we were worried about the quantity and quality in particular areas,” he added.

Mr. Segbefia further said the current quota system could only create shortage of nurses in the country since “less nurses will be trained” and advised government to review the decision.

Health Ministry defends trainee nurses quota system

In a related development, the Health Ministry has defended government’s decision to introduce the quota system saying it is aimed at improving quality of the nurses in the country.

The Ministry explained that the move will allow training institutions to produce nurses to meet the demands of the health sector, thus reducing unemployment.

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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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According to him, the current administration has failed to follow plans and policies it had in place to deal with the issue of the sector especially with the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) arrears.

His response follows comments made by the Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman Manu, who told Parliament that the scheme owes service providers and suppliers over GHc100 million Ghana cedis.

[contextly_sidebar id=”E9Pv77ib1bZXUTe7cgiLVsLpgCSKEpgq”]But Mr. Segbefia told Citi News that there must be a meticulous government effort to acquire funds to deal with the issue.

“…We were aware of the debt that was going to come, we were aware of the payments and we had a formula and system to deal with. But unfortunately there was a change of government and they [NPP] made all manner of promises that they had clear plan to deal with it. The question now is that, what is the plan for the current government?”

The former Health Minister explained that, during their time in office, the NDC government made ten percent of total NHIA allocation to the Health Ministry for the clearing of debts of essential vaccines and other commitments.

He added that the NDC government also decided to make some allocations from the petroleum levy to support the NHIA to bridge it funding gap, but could not implement it because they were kicked out of power.

“The way we got around this was that when the NHIA pay, ten percent of the amount paid to the NHIA is made available to the ministry to deal with issues such as this. And so we had put in place a system whereby funding for payment of essential vaccines were to come from allocations which was given to NHIA.”

He said they realized that “if we got all the money, because of the increased uses of the NHIA, all the monies that were coming from the formula we would still have a funding gap or shortage within the NHIA.”

“It is for this reason that the NDC administration decided and you heard it in our manifesto that we were going to take money from the petroleum levy to add to the existing NHIA bill which would have also increased the ten percent that was supposed to given, and would deal with this payment that we have made for the essential drugs and also give the NHIA the extra funding that it requires,” he added.

He thus called on the current Minister to implement the proposal or better still implement recommendations from a report commissioned by the Mahama government into the NHIA on how to increase its revenue.

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According to him, the proposal had a clear roadmap to paying the debt or reducing it to the barest minimum.

“…We were aware of the debt that was going to come, we were aware of the payments and we had a formula and system to deal with. But unfortunately there was a change of government and they [NPP] made all manner of promises that they had clear plan to deal with it. The question now is that what is the plan for the current government?”

[contextly_sidebar id=”CrNmj3qNeBAXQWkLzJMicbjbcZu1kEEG”]Mr. Segbefia made the remark on the Citi Breakfast Show on Friday in relation to a claim by the current Health Minister, Kwaku Agyeman Manu who complained that the NPP government is struggling to clear the over GHc100 million debt left by the Mahama-government in the sector.

“…The bottom line is that the previous government has committed debts not in the Ministry of Finance, just Ministry of Health…There is a debt overhang of close to about 134 million Ghana cedis as at the end of December 2016…The little goods and services that we got this year, we had to pay out of 53 million, 43 million to ensure that we pay for co funding to give us vaccines so that is the grim situation,” the Minister said.

But speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show, Mr. Segbefia said the NDC government envisioned the debt and strategized on how to deal with it.

The former Health Minister explained that during their time in power, the NDC government made ten percent of total NHIA allocation to the Health Ministry for the clearing of debts of essential vaccines and other commitments.

He added that the NDC government also decided to make some allocations from the petroleum levy to support the NHIA to bridge it funding gap but could not implement it because they were kicked out of power.

“The way we got round this was that when the NHIA pay, ten percent of the amount paid to the NHIA is made available to the ministry to deal with issues such as this. And so we had put in place a system whereby funding for payment of essential vaccines were to come from allocations which was given to NHIA.”

He said they realized that “if we got all the money, because of the increased uses of the NHIA, all the monies that were coming from the formula we would still have a funding gap or shortage within then NHIA.”

“It is for this reason that the NDC-led administration decided and you heard it in our manifesto that we were going to take money from the petroleum levy to add to the existing NHIA bill which would have also increased the ten percent that was supposed to given and would deal with this payment that we have make for the essential drugs and also give the NHIA the extra funding that it requires,” he added.

He however called on the current Minister to implement the proposal or better still implement recommendations from a report commissioned by the Mahama government into the NHIA on how to increase its revenue.

–

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He said unlike others that embark on strike actions at the least opportunity, the GPAA has never done that and has always resorted to dialogue and negotiations to settle their grievances.

[contextly_sidebar id=”fSxWeIAPKgxdb1nMbPxPZb38iHW1hKLT”]“I want to tell you that government and the Ministry appreciates that very much and will assist you in resolving your challenges”, he said.

Dr Afisah Zakariah, Chief Director at the Ministry of Health, said this on behalf of the Minister of Health, during the 14th Annual General Conference of the GPAA in Wa.

The Minister appealed to members to rally behind the leadership of the Association so that together with the Ministry their challenges would be identified and addressed.

Dr Afisah Zakariah said Physician Assistants played very key roles in the delivery of healthcare services and urged members not to see themselves as underdogs in the health profession.

“We cannot help you if you do not want to help yourselves”, she said.

Chief Alhaji Imoro Bandanaa II, President of the GPAA, said the cadre was a repository of labour stability, harmony and client friendliness and that if good work, loyalty and self-comportment deserved reward, then their reward was unduly delayed.

The GPAA National President said issues such as job description which defined their level and service conditions, though still at negotiation were painting a bleak picture of the situation.

“Career progression and the ownership of private enterprises in our area of practice after retirement are still issues that remains elusive in their peaceful dialogues”, he said.

Alhaji Bandanaa expressed optimism that the word of the Minister would ensure that negotiations on these issues would be fruitful.

The theme for this year’s conference was: “Sustainability of the Gate Keeper System in Healthcare Delivery; Challenges and the way forward.”

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Source: GNA

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Responding to concerns raised by doctors over government’s inability to engage new doctors who have completed their housemanship training at the 58th Annual General Conference of the Ghana Medical Association in Ho, the Minister said, medical doctors are among the few workers that are prioritized in terms of recruitment.

He observed that, the challenge however has been that the new doctors refuse posting to certain parts of the country, explaining that most of the doctors prefer postings to urban areas to the rural areas, a situation he described as unfortunate.

“The last placements that were done, we had on average for every region, a one third representation of the doctors that were placed turning down. In other words; when you place 21 doctors in every region we got seven going. But in Greater Accra, we had 100% turnout: we placed 20 and they all turned out :nobody fell sick, nobody complained.

“Now if any those doctors now go around saying they are unemployed then it’s unfair to us. Because we have placed you and got your financial clearance; but you have not gone to where we thought we should place you, and instead you are in Accra,” he lamented.

He therefore encouraged young doctors to be ready to take up postings to places where their services are most needed. This year’s conference was under theme “Cardiovascular Diseases: emerging trends”.

The Special Guest of Honour, Professor John Owusu Gyapong, the Vice Chancellor of The University of Health And Allied Sciences, made a presentation on the disease, which includes high blood pressure and cholesterol, diabetes among others. He called on the public to adopt healthy lifestyles and avoid excessive smoking and intake of alcohol.

The Volta Regional Minister, Hellen Adjoa Ntosu, also charged the doctors to be dedicated to service, since the health and well-being of the citizens are entrusted in their hands.

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By: King Nobert Akpablie/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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Dr Alexander Segbefia, Minister of Health, launching the project at a two-day stakeholder workshop in Kumasi said the 12 year long Public-Private-Partnership project is named “Accelerating Tuberculosis Case Detection in Ghana”.

It is part of deliberate steps by the Government of Ghana to reduce the current traumatic TB burden of 290 per 100,000 of the population to levels below 50 per every 100,000 people in Ghana.

He said under the novelty project, being implemented in Ghana, 50 hospitals across the country have been selected for the installation of the state-of-art tele-x-ray equipment, to provide increased access to mandatory free diagnostic screening to a target of over 75,000 suspected TB sufferers who are missed annually, partly due to misdiagnosis.

It is receiving co-financing from the Government of Ghana and the Netherlands Government in a 65-35 per cent cost- sharing arrangement respectively.

Ghana Government’s financing component, he said, came from a 14 million Euro loan facility secured from ABN/AMRO Bank which would be payable within the project period. Per the arrangement, the people of Ghana are represented by the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health.

Dr. Segbefia said the pro-poor intervention does not only bring TB diagnostic services to district hospitals but would also enable tele-medicine and specialists radiologist services reach such hospitals where it would have taken years to reach.

The workshop brought together about 182 health stakeholders, including Regional, District/Municipal health directors, radiographers, technicians and physicians among others to brainstorm to ensure the successful implementation of the project.

Dr. Frank Bonsu, Programme Manager of the National Tuberculosis Control Programme said the current TB/ HIV disease burden compounded by the development of multi-drug resistant TB strains, making the situation critical for increased capacity for detection, to bring down the disease.

He said his outfit as part of the Project, has set up a triage table at the Out-Patient- Departments (OPD) of all beneficiary hospitals, where patients reporting for other clinical cases would also be screened for TB.

Dr. Maurits Verhagen of the Universal Delft, a Dutch e-health solutions company, facilitators of the tele-radiography machine said human resource and not just the x-ray equipment, is an important link in the chain of diagnostic procedures to arrive at a conclusive diagnosis to pave way for treatment and cure of TB.

The X-ray device come with a specialized software Computer Aided Diagnostic for TB (CAD4TB) which screens all TB lesions to help make a quicker diagnosis at facilities where there is no radiologist.

Dr Nicholas Adjabu of the National TB control Programme said the leaded X-ray machines to ensure radiation security, would be installed at the selected hospitals by November this year and everything was in place to train technicians and other workers to man the equipment.

He mentioned these hospitals as the Kuntenase, Ejisu, Ejura in the Ashanti Region, Koforidua, Kade, in the Eastern Region, Pantang, Amasaman in the Greater Accra Region, as well as Twifo-Praso, Abura-Dunkwa and Kasoa in the Central Region.

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Source: GNA

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He said there was no doubt that weak and fragile health systems, coupled with inadequate resources hinder adequate response to emergencies in the region, and addressing the challenge would require leadership, ownership and alignment of partner agencies to support country priorities.

He said it would also ensure the implementation of a collective, coherent and synergistic approach among international, regional and national stakeholders in responding to emergencies to produce desirable results.

Mr Segbefia said it further requires countries to commit domestic resources for the implementation of International Health Regulation (IHR) 2005, while partners mobilise additional resources to supplement the countries’ effort.

The Health Minister made the call in a speech read on his behalf on the occasion of the certification for Training of 105 ECOWAS Regional Response Rapid Team (ERRRT) in Accra on Friday.

The training which was initiated by the West Africa Health Organisation (WAHO) was aimed at strengthening the capacity of the Sub-region to effectively respond to public health emergencies.

Mr Segbefia said “we now appreciate better that global health security is all about strong and resilient health systems. The most vulnerable countries are those with the least developed systems, many of these are in our sub-region”.

He said the whole region was at risk of emerging infectious diseases and with Sub-region having its fair share of devastating health emergencies including the serious outbreaks of Yellow fever, SARS, Zika, and the recent Ebola Viral Disease, critical lessons must be embedded into its preparedness effort for ongoing and future health threats.

Unfortunately, majority of these infectious disease threats occur in the context of poor socio-economic status, weak health systems, rapid population growth, unplanned urbanisation, climate change, natural hazards such as floods and drought, armed conflicts and other social unrests, he said.

These underlying factors, he said, exacerbates the vulnerabilities of the human and health systems and justifies the call for a holistic, multi-sector and all-hazard approach to emergency preparedness in the region.

He said investing in preparedness for health emergencies reduces socio-economic disruptions and protects the country’s economic achievements, however, inadequate preparedness and response capabilities, insufficient financial, human and logistical resources, fragmented health services, limited community engagement, inadequate inter-country collaborations and partnerships continue to present major challenges to attaining health security in the African Region and Global Health Security.

“We need stronger national public health capabilities, infrastructure, and processes built to a common standard and regularly assessed through an objective and transparent process that was fully consistent with the International Health Regulations (IHR) 2005.

He urged the members of the ERRRT to operate in harmony to ensure the security of their respective countries, the sub-region, the continent and Global Health Security at large.

Dr Xavier Crespin, the Director General of WAHO, thanked ECOWAS, the African Union and its other development partners for their support and solidarity towards the building of strong and resilient health systems in the sub- region.

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Source: GNA

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