Otumfuo Osei Tutu II
The Health Minister, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, must adopt a better management template for the sector he manages on behalf of the people of Ghana.
So far, he does not deserve plaudits for a stewardship which falls below acceptable standards and is dotted with brusqueness and show or even abuse of power.
For a stewardship which is occasioned by doctors’ strikes, we would be wrong not to find faults with his management as political head of this important sector.
In Tamale, what unfolded at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) took place when doctors downed their tools in protest at his stewardship.
But for the intervention of the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, the strike at KATH would have continued and many fatalities would have been recorded.
Now that the doctors have suspended their strike action, of course as they await a positive feedback from the government and for that matter the Health Ministry regarding their plight, we ask that this be expedited.
In the first place, such brusque reaction when there are issues does not speak of good leadership. As a minister, it behooves him to maintain a cordial relationship with his critical publics and, in this case, the doctors and other health delivery staff who manage the hospitals.
Doctors and other health staff in public hospitals are working under rather challenging conditions such as overcrowded ambiences and restricted tools.
The resultant poor motivation is enough to have doctors and other health delivery staff flip when political heads exude arrogant postures when discharging their political oversight roles over them.
The Health Minister should rather use his energy to seek improved working conditions for the doctors and, above all, provide health facilities with amenities which inure to the good of patients.
Mr. Akandoh should know that failure on his part can go a long way in impacting the quality of health service in hospitals, as witnessed in the KATH case.
Our health facilities need equipment and more beds so doctors can perform their assigned roles. Doctors do not want situations where their patients die because of the absence of required facilities such as beds.
The CEO was suspended because he took a decision which was not palatable leadership, period. It was a decision which was not intended to wreak untoward impact on patients but rather improve health delivery.
The Health Minister should render an unalloyed apology to the CEO of KATH, something we doubt he would.
When there are creditable elders at home, positive interventions are possible, and this, the Asantehene provided productively.
The Health Minister failed to have the doctors return to the consulting rooms but the Asantehene did. Cool heads are better than haughty ones.
