The Catholic Bishop of the Koforidua Diocese, Most Rev. Joseph Afrifa Agyekum, is urging healthcare workers of the Christian Health Association of Ghana (CHAG) to resist the temptation of joining the strike actions to demand better conditions of service.
While urging the government to improve the conditions of service for health workers, the Bishop maintained that embarking on strike actions undermines the church’s mission of providing quality health care in the country.
He was speaking at this year’s Annual Conference of the Christian Health Association of Ghana in Koforidua in the Eastern Region.
“CHAG’s commitment to 24-hour services remains our lifetime pledge. Whilst we will advocate for the best conditions of service for our workers, our non-strike convention values remain in place and must be upheld in all circumstances, anywhere, anytime.
“My dear CHAG members, you have signed on to work with CHAG and for us, we are a Christian community, an agency of the Ghana Health Services and work for the promotion of good health for the people. In the worst-case scenario, sick people, and needy people should find solace in us They should be able to find a place where they can be taken care of.
“I have always said to health workers: If you have never been ill, maybe you don’t understand what it means to be sick or being denied health care,” he explained.
The conference marks the resumption of the Annual Conferences of the Christian Health Association of Ghana (CHAG) after a four-year break due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
It serves as a platform for CHAG facility managers, medical directors, frontline clinicians, non-clinical staff, and other stakeholders to review their performances, identify common challenges, share best practices, and explore scalable innovations aimed at addressing emerging health issues.
In his address, the Executive Director of CHAG, Peter Yeboah, stressed the group’s significant role in Ghana’s healthcare sector, providing services to 6 million people annually through its 22 healthcare institutions and 1,300 healthcare facilities.
He emphasized the need for a paradigm shift from focusing solely on financing and increasing access to healthcare to prioritizing the quality of healthcare and human resources.
He stated that equitable access to quality healthcare delivered by highly skilled and dedicated healthcare workers is essential to winning the trust of the public in the health system and achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC).
The Director General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Patrick Kuma Aboagye, noted the country’s progress toward UHC, citing improvements in increased life expectancy and decreased maternal mortality rates.
However, he acknowledged significant challenges, including total healthcare expenditure, quality of care, and workforce distribution, revealing that 88% of medical specialists are concentrated in the Greater Accra and Ashanti Regions.
The conference concluded with calls for the government to support CHAG facilities in terms of equipment and infrastructural expansion, prompt payment of National Health Insurance claims, among other needs.