Dr Anthony Nsiah-Asare
The Ghana Health Service (GHS), in collaboration with the USAID, has launched a new guideline aimed at improving the services of the healthcare sector at all levels.
The Supportive Supervision Guidelines, launched by the Director General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr Anthony Nsiah-Asare, will also strengthen the relationship between practitioners and improve services that would be provided to clients.
The document which is to be used across all levels of healthcare delivery in the country will also be sort of teaching, learning, facilitating and mentoring manual for the health facilities.
It also contains tools for jointly solving problems and maintaining two-way channel of communication among supervisors and supervisees to enable practitioners to follow the guidelines to the letter.
Dr Nsiah-Asare stated that they were committed to improving the quality of health services nationwide and, therefore, the establishment of the Supportive Supervision Guidelines concept among others would ensure the delivery of high healthcare services across the health sector.
He said the traditional supervision model was not yielding the needed outcome to allow for effective positive change and enhance staff performance, hence the need for the new one.
“The new approach has the potential to result in sustainable healthcare which was more aligned with the GHS goal of improving quality service delivery and it would also help practitioners to avoid the long standing challenges associated with the traditional supervision,” he explained.
Dr Nsiah-Asare mentioned that the sustainability of the Supportive Supervision Guidelines depends largely on leaders and managers, and urged them to remain committed and ensure a progressive management structure that prioritises quality of care.
He added that managers and supervisors at each level would be trained in the Supportive Supervision Guidelines model and be equipped to facilitate the teamwork.
Dr Samuel Kaba, Head of the Institutional Care Division of the GHS, assured health workers that the guidelines are to seek the welfare of health professionals, but not to witch-hunt them.
He said the new module would empower officials for the supportive supervision of the health sector.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri