Fifteen medical doctors were awarded for their hard work and contributions to the health sector at the maiden Ghana Medical Association (GMA) Volta and Oti Regions Excellence Awards held at the weekend at Ho, the Volta Regional capital.
Three health facilities in the two regions were also awarded for providing excellent health delivery to their clients.
The maiden annual event was to, among other things, bring together medical doctors within the health sector and academia to track progress made and performance in the previous years, and to inform future decision making.
The Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, in an address read for him, called on medical doctors to accept postings in rural areas, saying “a more sustainable incentive packages from the ministry to motivate our health workers to accept postings to the rural areas are being worked out.”
According to him, 60 per cent of our doctors were in Accra and Kumasi, leaving only 40 per cent for the rest of the regions.
He explained that the government was making everything possible to make life better for health workers, especially in the provision of equipment and other logistics.
“In view of this, we need to reposition the country’s health services to continue providing high quality healthcare delivery to the poor, sick and the marginalised in society,” the minister said.
The minister whose address was read for him by the Director for External Health Cooperation at the Ministry of Health, Dr Hafez Adam Taher, expressed the need to reposition the country’s health services to continue to provide high quality healthcare to the poor, sick and the marginalised in society.
Mr Agyeman-Manu commended health workers for their individual contribution towards quality healthcare delivery in the country.
The President of the GMA, Dr Frank Serebour, noted that the association needed to learn from the initiative of the Volta/Oti Division to award hard working members.
He however, said even though the Agenda 111 project had good intention, it would become a mirage if all the completed ones were not equipped.
The Chairman of the Awards Committee, Dr Sodzi Sodzi- Tettey, thanked all the sponsors for their valuable contributions towards the event and pledged the association’s continuous support.
The Member of Parliament (MP) for North Tongu, Samuel Ablakwa who sponsored the Healthcare Personality of the Year award, was also presented with an award for supporting healthcare delivery in his constituency.
Present at the function were the Volta Regional Minister, Dr Archibald Letsa, Professor Lydia Aziato, Vice Chancellor of University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS) and Professor Fred Binka, former VC of UHAS.
BY CLAUDE NYARKO ADAMS
