‘Develop staffing norms in health sector’ (Mirror)

Saturday, December 18, 2010

stakeholders in the health sector have raised concerns on the continuing inequalities in the distribution of health professionals in the country and, therefore, called for the development of staffing norms to improve human resource distribution in the country.
This was contained in an aide memoir signed by the Ministry of Health, its development partners and other stakeholders after a five-day health summit held in Accra on the theme: "Going beyond strategy to action: Accelerating activities towards meeting the MDGs".
At a ceremony in Accra, the Minister of Health, Dr Benjamin Kunbuor, signed the document on behalf of the Government of Ghana while the Country Representative of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Ghana, Dr Daniel Kertesz, and representatives of the other development partners signed on behalf of their respective organisations.
The aide memoir represents the discussions, conclusions and agreements arrived at during the November 2010 health summit and the business meeting between the MoH, development partners and interest groups within the health sector.
The meeting considered various comments and recommendations from the summit and agreed that a limited number of priorities should be identified for each strategic objective.
Challenges in the area of performance management were also discussed. It was agreed that inter-agency performance management systems should be firmed up, while individual agencies were encouraged to initiate staff performance appraisal.
Concerning leadership and governance, concerns were also raised about the weak level of governance at the district level.
The meeting ,therefore, agreed that leadership and governance at all levels formed an essential component of health system strengthening and endorsed the current initiative- the Leadership Development Programme which MoH and GHS had adopted to develop capacity within the system.
Noting that facilitative supervision systems in the sector were weak, the meeting was briefed on the initiative on support and supervision systems adopted in the Upper West Region (UWR). It was agreed that the UWR initiative should be explored further as a way of addressing the weak supervision systems.
Another significant issue discussed at the meeting was malaria. It was agreed that because of the fragmented implementation of malarial interventions, further discussion on the disease was required, and should take place within the context of the existing strategic plan for malarial prevention and control.
To achieve the desired objective as far as malarial control was concerned, the MoH was tasked to convene a meeting between technical experts and implementing agencies on the way forward by the end of June 2011.
Concerning future reviews and summits, it was noted that there was increasing recognition that the funding implications for such activities could change in the future and that MoH and the health partners needed to reflect upon potential future funding modalities for these critical activities.
Dr Kunbuor commended the health partners for their support for Ghana over the years and pointed out that aide memoir would serve as a guide for all activities within the health sector.
Dr Kertezs expressed happiness at the outcome of the summit, adding that for once, specific issues which were related to the theme for the event should be discussed and recommendations made.
The Health Summit which reviewed the draft 2011 annual Programme of Work , came off from November 22- 26, 2010 at GIMPA.
Participants were drawn from government Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDA), the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health, academia, civil society, private sector and development partners.
The summit began with an update on the Sector Medium Term Development Plan (SMTDP), followed by the findings of the Joint Assessment of National Strategies (JANS) mission.
The opening ceremony came off on the first afternoon, with joint chairmanship from the Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Mr Fiifi Kwetey, and the Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health and Deputy Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, Alhaji Dr Mustapha Ahmed.