The Minister for Health, Dr Kwaku Agyemang-Mensah, has charged members of the newly constituted board of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) to devise innovative ways of mobilising funds to improve the performance of the sector.
He also called on them to take steps to plug all the leakages in the system to avoid waste and make room for more savings.
Inaugurating the 11-member governing body in Accra yesterday, the minister indicated that the vigilance and effective monitoring of the agency under its care would help achieve that objective.
Members of the board
The board has Dr Paul Ennin, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Airport Women�s Hospital, as the chairman, with Dr Ebenezer Appiah-Denkyira, Director-General of the GHS, as a member.
Other members are Prof. Fred Newton Binka, Dr Elias Kavinah Sory, Dr Paul Lartey, Dr Angela Amedo, Mrs Levina Owusu, Mr Reynolds Ofosu Tinkorang, Mr Sampson Akuetteh Nortey and a representative from the Ministry of Education.
Several agitations
Dr Agyemang-Mensah said in recent times there had been several agitations by health workers, and urged the board to find the means of handling such issues in the sector professionally and with tact to ensure peaceful and harmonious labour-management relations in the health sector.
The GHS is charged with providing quality and affordable healthcare services to majority of Ghanaians and its services stretch to the smallest communities.
According to Dr Agyeman-Mensah, GHS agencies were guided in their operations by the four-year Sector Medium Plan which covers 2014-2017.
Strategy document
He said the programme for work, which was teased out from the strategy document, had the theme, �Working together towards quality health care for all in Ghana�, and all the agencies were expected to align their operational plans to it.
According to him, the focus of the programme of work was on accelerating the achievement of the MDGs, especially four, five and six, as well as promoting quality health care and sanitation.
�Communicable and non-communicable diseases are also beginning to pose a serious threat to the health of the people, hence the need to intensify health promotion and healthy lifestyles,� he said.
Infectious diseases
Dr Agyemang-Mensah said tropical infectious diseases which were acquired through poor sanitation were also on the increase, hence the need to pay attention to minimise their occurrence had become apparent.
The Chairman of the board, Dr Ennin, a private health practitioner with over 30 years experience, pledged to work hard to inject efficiency into the GHS.
He said top on the agenda of the new board was to devise ways of integrating the private sector into the public sector and ensuring that it worked effectively.
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