A view of the UGMC. INSET: Dr. Darius Osei, CEO UGMC.
The University of Ghana Medical Centre (UGMC) has begun orientation for 181 newly employed medical and non-medical staff in accordance with plans to scale up its services to the public.
The programme is to ensure the smooth entry and integration of the newly employed staff – of which 67 per cent are medical personnel – into the UGMC work environment.
The new employees bring to 400 the number of employed staff of the centre so far.
Opening the ceremony held at the centre, Dr. Darius Osei, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of UGMC, said the recruitment of additional staff had become necessary due to the opening of additional services such as General Surgery, Cardiology, Urology, Emergency Medicine, Diagnostics, Gastroenterology, Dermatology and Ophthalmology to the public.
He added that UGMC medical simulation and training centre which was opened a few weeks ago was also poised to offer training for pre-service and practising health professionals.
“I am particularly excited that we are able to offer these additional services without disrupting ongoing works being undertaken by the contractor,” Dr. Osei said.
The UGMC CEO said the phase II of the project had commenced and was expected to be completed by the end of December 2020 as scheduled.
Dr. Osei also revealed that the centre was almost through with the finalization of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the University of Ghana (College of Health Sciences).
He said the MoU would guarantee that highly skilled professionals working in the various schools of the college would be able to add their expertise to the range of services to be provided at UGMC.
“UGMC remains focused on delivering an excellent and unparallel patient experience throughout every facet of its operations and upon full operationalization, the centre will have three functional areas – health delivery, training and research,” he added.
UGMC was opened to the public in November 2018 offering out-patient services in paediatric, gynaecology and family medicine departments as part of the interim management’s decision to operationalize the centre in phases.
This year, government gave approval for the recruitment of 2,000 health personnel for the 615-bed facility.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri & Juliana Tamatey