Gov’t Expands Digitization of Health Sector

Dignitaries at the launch of the MOIS platform

The government, as part of its digitization plan, has announced the connection of more health facilities under the Ghana Health Service (GHS) unto one digital platform by the end of the year.

Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, who announced this said the move is to ensure improvement in efficiency of healthcare delivery.

“Facilities at the top-level teaching hospitals, regional hospitals and district hospitals will begin to talk to each other. As I speak, we have linked 36 facilities in the Central Region where we piloted this about two years ago.

We have linked five regional hospitals as well. So now if you are moving from one regional hospital like Tamale to the Teaching Hospital in Tamale, you do not need to carry a folder… all your records will be seen and monitored by a doctor. Patients will have only one folder wherever you go and your records will be one from birth till the day you die,” he said.

The sector minister said digitization is one of the important tools President Akuffo Addo’s government is using in the delivery of public services.

“This is because if public services become more efficiently, they will be translated to help productivity which will eventually cumulate to improve the fortunes of our people. This is the only way we can modernize our society to compete favorably in the global arena,” he said.

Mr. Agyeman-Manu was speaking at the launch of the Mobile Online Information System (MOIS) assessment standards for inspection for the Health Facilities Regulatory Agency (HeFRA).
MOIS Platform
The Mobile Online Information System (MOIS) is an online platform designed to digitize the services HeFRA provides to health facilities by leveraging and enhancing the execution of HeFra’s mandate to register, inspect, license and monitor all health facilities.

Mr. Agyeman-Manu commended HeFRA for the innovation saying, “the introduction of the MOIS at this stage is timely to reduce the burden on the health facilities and the Agency.”

Registrar of HeFRA, Dr. Philip Banor, said today’s knowledge-based society are propelled largely by science and ICT to proffer innovative solutions to societal problems.

He said the manual operational process of HeFRA which has 500 professional staff and offices in eight regions makes its activities time consuming to both the facility and the Agency.

“As we expand to cover the 16 regions, it becomes burdensome to the facilities to travel long distances to our offices before they could transact business with us. Therefore, digitizing our operational process will reduce this and other burdens on our clients and make us more efficient,” he said.

He assured the public of HeFRA’s commitment to address teething challenges as the implementation of the project takes off.

By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri

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