Ganta, Nimba County – The Deputy Health Minister for Administration, Madam Norwu Howard, has challenged health administrators across the country to step up their games in order to provide quality healthcare.
Dep. Min. Howard wants health administrators to utilize resources at their disposal and work with their staff to effectively meet the expectation of the people.
She stated that people’s expectations for quality health service are high amidst limited resources.
The Deputy Health Minister indicated that it was unacceptable that health administrators would use a huge chunk of their allotments for DSA instead of it being used for the provision of services to their communities.
A Health Ministry press statement signed by its Communication Consultant, Sorbor George, quotes Deputy Minister Howard as charging health administrators to use their leadership skills in addressing some of those challenges, despite the challenges with human resource, logistic and supply chain among others.
She further reminded the participants of their responsibilities to save lives and properly manage the health sector by helping to optimize services.
“We will hold people accountable to the implementation of new ideas and strategies that would evolve from these discussions,” she told the health administrators.
She thanked the Assistant Minister for Administration and other members of the team for the idea to hold such a retreat, which is the first of its kind, promising that it would be an annual event.
The ongoing health administrators retreat currently taking place in Ganta, Nimba County, comes barely weeks after the holding of a National Health Financing Dialogue to secure creative ways to fund the health sector.
A resolution was drawn up during the dialogue with recommendations for the reintroduction of the Drugs Revolving Fund.
At current, the health sector budget is a little over US$60 million, with personnel taking a huge portion followed by drugs acquisition.
Deputy Minister Howard, under whose supervision the retreat is being held, has a hands-on-approach on the functionality of the health sector, owing to a nationwide assessment, conducted along with WHO, Centers for Disease Control and the National Public Health Institute few months back following her appointment.
The retreat runs up to Friday.