Dr. Kuma-Aboagye explaining issues at the press conference
The Director General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, has indicated that the management of COVID-19 would soon be ‘mainstreamed’ into the healthcare delivery system.
He told journalists in Accra on Thursday that the management of COVID -19 would no longer be done at the current few designated facilities but in a wide range of GHS facilities.
“This year, we are going to focus on ensuring that we mainstream the management of COVID -19. This means that all our peripheral facilities from all levels will have a role to play in case management, so that we slowly move out of this emergency phase,” he said.
Dr. Kuma-Aboagye gave this announcement during an interaction with the media in Accra. He said the move was to enhance COVID -19 response and help improve health outcomes, adding that the measure was also in line with activities towards attaining Universal Health Coverage (UHC).
“As such, we are restructuring our sub-district healthcare system to make it more efficient, so that we can have model health centres running 24 hours daily to take up majority of the primary health cases to help decongest our hospitals,” he said.
The GHS Director General further indicated plans for the service to employ the use of digital tools in the discharge of services to clients.
“We also want to take a critical look at telemedicine using digital approaches to provide access to quality care. If there is anything that we can learn from COVID -19, then it is exploring innovative ways of working and reaching the public with healthcare services to ensure quality care for all,” he noted.
He also highlighted staff welfare, capacity building and motivation as priority areas the service was looking at improving upon.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri