A health expert from the School of Medical Science, University of Cape Coast, Dr. Aaron Offei is stressing the need for standards and constant monitoring and evaluation to ensure quality health delivery in the country.
“Improving quality is about making healthcare safe, effective, patient- centered, timely, efficient and equitable. It’s about giving the people the necessary information about their condition, providing them the resources and skills to solve them.
“Quality improvement requires that activities are planned and carried out systematically and continuously against the standards that we have set and also ensure that monitoring and evaluation is a core part of our business,” he said.
Dr. Offei was sharing his thoughts with beneficiaries of the second cohort of the Quality Healthcare Improvement course by the Africa Higher Education Health Collaborative, KNUST in partnership with Mastercard Foundation.
The former Ashanti and Cape Coast regional health director praised the Collaborative for the successes clinched since its inception.
“So much has been done within this short period. It’s very commendable. The Collaborative work is really an impactful programme,” he said.
Twenty health professionals have been selected to take part of the Quality Healthcare Improvement short course by the Health Employment pillar of the collaborative.
The course, which is in partnership with the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and the University of Toronto, seeks to equip health personnel with the requisite strength and capacity to meet the growing demand for primary healthcare in the health centre.
Dr. Margarita Kleopatra Lam Antoniades who led a team of facilitators from the University of Toronto to Ghana, was excited about the progress made by beneficiaries in the first cohort.
“What I realized with the wonderful students is that I see that passion and vision in Ghana,” she said.
Registrar of KNUST, Mr. Andrews Kwasi Boateng encouraged the participants to take “full advantage of the opportunity to learn from each other and to build a network of professionals committed to quality improvement”.