Health facilities to be star-rated

The Christian Health Association of Ghana has expressed worry over the country’s inability to measure the quality of healthcare delivery.

According to the Executive Director, Peter Yeboah, though accessibility has been increased within the sector, the issues about quality care needs to be improved.

“We have not achieved our vision of quality, affordable healthcare for everybody which is a trust of our march towards achieving universal health coverage, instead of health for all, we have achieved health for some. Even those that we have provided health for some, their safety and guarantee in terms of quality cannot be validated by anyone,” he said.

Mr Yeboah said this at the launch of the CHAG-Safe care Quality Improvement Programme aimed at improving the quality of health delivery in Ghana.

The Chairman for the event, Dr Sam Sarpong, bemoaned the level of unprofessionalism exhibited in many CHAG facilities, adding that the quality of healthcare delivery has declined.

“CHAG facilities were associated with high-quality standard, and now things have changed because we couldn’t keep to that standard and now we are struggling and in serious competition with those who were nowhere near us in the past,” he added.

Speaking to JoyNews, Country Director for PharmAccess, Maxwell Akwasi Antwi, noted that the programme will measure how well each health facility performs compared to others in the country using a star rating system similar to that used for hotels.

“We want to rate or provide a star for every facility within the network. The stars range between 1 and 5. 1 star means that the service is not too good, 5 means it is engaging in international best practices. So we will first-rate all of them and help those who fall below 5 to work to improve to get to 5. We will be building the capacity of nurses, doctors and pharmacists so that after the three years they can continue in the Quality Assessment programme”

The Deputy Minister of Health, Alexander Kojo Kom Abban, said the ministry will monitor the system closely and will incorporate it in the Ghana Health Service.

Source: Joy News