Health Minister Tours FDA, HFRA

The Minister for Health, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, has embarked on a working tour of some agencies under his watch.

They include the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) and the Health Facilities Regulatory Agency (HFRA).

The visits are expected to enable him to familiarise himself with activities of the Agencies and receive updates on issues confronting them within their work environments.

The CEO of the FDA, Mrs. Delese Darko briefed the Minister on the core functions of the Authority and outlined the challenges confronting them such as inadequate staff, financial limitations due to government IGF capping, lack of office space, low penalty units for offenders of FDA regulations, among others.

The Minister congratulated them for the great strides they are making, despite the challenges confronting them. He assured them of his support through the needed lobbying of government to ensure that the required resources are acquired to help them achieve their set objectives as a Regulatory Agency.

The Minister also toured their offices to see at first hand their accommodation situation.

At HFRA, the story was far more serious in terms of human resource requirements, infrastructure, financial resources among others.

The Registrar, Mr. Matthew Kyeremeh, also outlined their functions and limitations. He indicated that their presence at the regional and district levels was virtually non-existent until some recent intervention by management which has brought about some set ups in Ho, Kumasi and one other region.

He added that even as young as his Agency was and hugely under financial pressure, government intends to cap their IGF, this he laments and seeks the intervention of the Minister.

The Minister hopes to make such visits a weekly affair.

Source: Starrfmonline