The health delivery system in the country is listing dangerously and the reason is not far-fetched.Being responsible for the management of the health needs of citizens the Ministry of Health is a department of state which should exude a zero tolerance for incompetence.
Unfortunately though the Minister Of Health, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh’s inexperience is leading the ministry to an avoidable abyss.When it emerged that his only experience at management was when he was a dining hall prefect at school observers put up wry smiles about his competence at heading such a critical ministry.
For a ministry whose performance depends upon a motivated crop of professionals there is a worrying decline of morale among this segment of its labour force occasioned by the bad decisions taken by the said minister.Competent and efficient professionals have been vindictively moved out of their places of posts for NDC-aligned round pegs in round holes… much to the detriment of the healthcare delivery system.
Public health facilities are now a distant image of what they used to be.
For those who already doubted Akandoh’s competence in managing a health ministry his insulting conduct when he stormed the Tamale Teaching Hospital with insulting posturing and language instead of humility they could only retort ‘oh my Gosh we said it.’Rewarding persons for their crude and inappropriate campaign trail conduct is a recipe for the kind of situation the health care delivery system finds itself in today under the direction of Akandoh.
If there is a ministry where the headship is open for a learning-on- the-job situation it should not be the Health Ministry because managing a healthcare delivery system requires expertise not apprenticeship.
The kind of avoidable disruption which unfolded at the Tamale Teaching Hospital should have alerted the President about the quality of person he appointed to head the Health Ministry.
The scene which unfolded at the Greater Accra Regional Hospital otherwise called the Ridge Hospital when a ruling party activist led a gang of thugs to assault staff of the facility is a testament to the dire situation in which the healthcare delivery system has been plunged into.Palpably excited about the typical NDC conduct of Ralph Saint Williams for assaulting the health professionals and videoing same for dissemination the incompetent minister rather hugged the activist and showered plaudits upon him as it were.
A much needed condemnation for the flagrant violation of the privacy of patients on admission did not come but a shameful and unproductive so-called setting up of a 5-man committee to probe the scene by the incompetent minister was announced.
Meant only for the optics nothing productive would come out of this so-called committee.
