Mahama's capacity building plan for the health sector

Capacity building for health workers has numerous benefits, including:

Improved quality of care: By providing health workers with training and education, they can enhance their skills and knowledge, leading to improved quality of care for patients. This can result in better health outcomes and increased patient satisfaction.

Increased efficiency: Capacity building can help health workers become more efficient in their roles, leading to better time management, resource utilisation, and overall productivity. This can result in reduced waiting times for patients and improved access to healthcare services.

Enhanced problem-solving skills: Capacity building programmes can help health workers develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills, enabling them to effectively address complex healthcare challenges and provide innovative solutions to improve patient care.

Strengthened healthcare systems: By investing in the capacity building of health workers, healthcare systems can become more resilient and sustainable. This can lead to better coordination, communication, and collaboration among healthcare providers, ultimately improving the overall functioning of the healthcare system.

Increased job satisfaction and retention: Providing opportunities for training and career development can boost morale among health workers and increase job satisfaction. This, in turn, can lead to higher retention rates, reducing turnover and ensuring a stable workforce in the healthcare sector.

Better response to emergencies and outbreaks: Well-trained and skilled health workers are better equipped to respond to emergencies, such as natural disasters, disease outbreaks, and pandemics. Capacity building can help health workers prepare for and effectively manage such crises, ensuring a timely and coordinated response to protect public health.

In its quest to achieve the aforementioned benefits, the next NDC Government led by H.E. John Dramani Mahama, will employ the backlog of qualified health professionals, support health professionals with insurance to cushion them from unintended consequences of their practice; and support bilateral and other exchange programmes for our health personnel to expose them to best practices around the world.

There are more: The next Mahama-led Government will institute a National Health Workers' Day and establish an award scheme for deserving individual workers and best health facilities including private facilities, initiate a plan to establish the Ghana College of Nurses and Midwives, scale up the training of Physician Assistants and emergency physicians, construct regional hospitals in the six new regions, and the Western Region,

empower the local pharmaceutical industry to produce more generics to feed the domestic drug market which started while he was president. This is just to mention a few.

Anthony Obeng Afrane