Gov't urged to review LOCUM among health professionals

Government is being urged to take a second look at LOCUM among health professionals in the country as this bothers on conflict of interest and does not inure to the benefit of the state as it impacts negatively on public health facilities. 

This issue came to the fore during an interaction between the Minister of Health, Mr. Kweku Agyeman Manu and staff of the Effia-Nkwanta Regional Hospital in Sekondi. 

The Western Region boasts of eight hundred and 95 health facilities with seven hundred and 21 being public health institutions. 

These are manned by a total one hundred and 12 medical officers and a little over a thousand general nurses among other health personnel. 

This is seen as woefully inadequate with most facilities lacking the critical professionals to ensure effective healthcare services. 

The Minister of Health, Mr. Kweku Agyeman Manu is currently on a working visit to the region to gather first-hand information on the state of health services, health infrastructure situation, challenges and also motivate the staff to give off their best.

Instances where medical personnel engaged by the state to work in public health facilities also work in private medical facilities. 

In the Sekondi-Takoradi metropolis, the minister and his entourage visited some health facilities and also interacted with some agencies under the ministry of health. 

In a meeting with the Western Regional Health Management Team, the Western Regional Director of Health Services, Dr. Jacob Yakubu Mahama said the directorate is constrained by inadequate and ageing personnel and poor logistics among others. 

He mentioned high maternal and perinatal mortalities, inadequate anti-snake serum and anti-rabies vaccines as key concerns. 

The Minister also visited the offices of the National Health Insurance Authority and the Food and Drugs Authority, FDA. 

At the FDA, the Regional Officer, Mr. Abu Sumaila briefed the health minister on efforts put in place to control the abuse of tramadol and other medicines. 

These include education and the need to ensure that, the only pharmacies are allowed to sell the drug which can only be done with a prescription. 

At the National Health Insurance Authority, Mrs. Edna Gyau-Baffour was happy that, arrears owed service providers are being paid. 

She indicated that, the NHIA is piloting the digitization of payment and renewal of premium and will soon spread it with the coming online of the Ghana Card. 

In his remarks, Mr. Agyeman Manu hinted that, by the end of June this year, all arrears owed survive providers for 2016 and 2017 will be would have been paid. 

The staff of the Effia-Nkwanta Regional Hospital raised a number of concerns including the lack of personnel, poor state of the hospital as well as the need for temporal staff to be put on mechanized payroll. 

Another issue that came up was the locum, where medical personnel engaged by the state to work in public health facilities also work in private medical facilities. 

The Minister of Health, Kweku Agyeman Manu who corroborated the claim by Mr. Boachie indicated that, besides its effect on revenue generation, it is also leads to abuse of the scarce resources of the facilities. 

He said, in some cases, expensive equipment is tempered with to make them malfunction so as to direct patients to private facilities with similar facilities. 

Mr. Agyeman Manu said, the issue of conflict of interest in the medical profession has come to his attention and will be addressed in a manner that will ensure a win-win situation for all.

Story filed by GBC's Marie Aziz Tunde

GBCONLINE
---DECRYPTED---