Patrick Obeng, GNA
Accra, Aug. 20, GNA –
According to the Ghana Living Standard Survey 6 of 2014, more than 50 per cent
of the country’s population seek healthcare from private practitioners.
“Private health
practitioners continue to play major roles in the provision of healthcare in
the country.”
This was contained in
a communiqué issued by the Society of Private Medical and Dental Practitioners
and signed by its President, Dr Isaac Morrison, at the end of the society’s
40th Annual General Meeting in Accra, on Sunday.
It said despite the
success of the private sector, serving 50 per cent of the people, the society
believes that the private practitioners could do more by setting up practices
in many areas, provided the right incentives, motivation and recognition would
be given to such facilities.
“Despite the existence
of a framework for private public partnership, unfortunately this area has not
been exploited fully, to better serve the health needs of the country, and
that, government cannot do it alone and neither is it acceptable to continue to
shore up capital and taxes to service the huge wage bill of only the public
sector.”
It charged the
Ministry of Health to clearly redefine the role and put the private sector in
the strategic position that rightly belong to the sector to enable it to serve
as the engine of growth in the health sector.
The communiqué urged
the National Health Insurance Authority, as a matter of urgency, to engage
stakeholders on issues of outstanding arrears, renegotiations on tariffs and
other related issues.
“We, however, wish to
emphasise that we as a society will not condone any proven fraudulent
practices, and we can no longer sit down unconcerned when the NHIA’s non
–payments result in members facing the full blunt of the law with other state
institutions”, the communiqué added.
The communiqué also
urged the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation to use
the internet to facilitate all their transactions, rather than asking
practitioners to stop clinical practice and troop across the country to collect
forms.
The communiqué also
appealed to the Ministry of Health to actively promote and institutionalize the
public private partnership to provide some solutions to the no-bed syndrome
being experienced in the country.
It urged all healthcare
practitioners to develop some emotional intelligence and strive to show
empathy, self-control and have better listening skills for patients.
GNA