From Sebastian R. Freiku.
The various directorates of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital have been directed to adopt Standard Operation Procedures (SOPs) for the effective implementation of policies and regulations in the running of the facility.
The new Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Isaiah Ofe-Gyimah, said the adoption of SOPs was important for effective operations and implementation of policies. Mr. Ofe-Gyimah told a meeting of journalists in Kumasi that his administration would review monitoring tools to assess staff performance for the benefit of clients.
He said there was the need to motivate staff, by which they would motivate subordinates to give off their best. According to him, the administration would encourage full customer care for staff, and take good care of staff to be in a good frame of mind to discharge their duties to ensure quality healthcare delivery.
These measures, he said, were to address operational challenges facing the facility currently, and towards the restoration of its dented public image. He mentioned congestion at the maternity wards as a major challenge to the facility, and called for completion of the 1,000-bed capacity Maternity and Children’s Block, disclosing that about US$100 million would be needed to complete the project, which was started some 40 years ago.
The KATH CEO said the completion of the project had so much potential that its present state was distressful, pointing out that congestion had fuelled maternal and neo-natal deaths at the facility.Mr. Ofe-Gyimah further disclosed that the labour ward had eight delivery beds to take care of the 30 births per day, which, he said, did not befit the status of a referral facility which also doubled as a teaching hospital, a tertiary health facility, and a primary health care centre.
He said that the management had acquired two refrigerators to store stillbirths at the Labour Ward and Mother and Baby Unit (MBU). The CEO appealed to the authorities to give the completion of the maternity block priority, adding that KATH was an important health facility to leave to go down the drain. He said Ashanti is the most populous region, yet it was the least endowed in terms of health facilities, and that as the only region without a regional hospital, the burden had been on KATH, even though healthcare is not exclusive to it.