ALTERNATIVE MEDICAL PRACTITIONERS URGED TO ADOPT GOOD WORK ETHICS (PAGE 28)

A Director of Traditional and Alternative Health at the Ministry of Health, Mr Peter Arhin, has called on operators of private health facilities to adopt good in practices to enable the ministry to achieve its goal of building the private sector to provide 50 per cent of healthcare services.
He explained that the private sector was expanding and with entrepreneurial drive it could build the needed capacity to partner the ministry for the benefit of the people.
Mr Arhin made the call at the inauguration of a branch of the Crystal Hospital in Tema. The hospital has other branches at Ashaiman, Michel Camp and Adjei-Kojo.
He commended the management of the facility for expanding fast to serve various communities in the area.
Mr Arhin emphasised the need to provide quality service with good human relations that would enable them to develop and post messages on notice boards at the precincts of their facilities to educate patients on their rights and responsibilities.
He stressed the need for them to obtain early feedback on the conditions of the patients they handled and therefore suggested that the private alternative medicine practitioners should visit patients at home to find out their conditions and how they were responding to medication.
Mr Arhin also commended the private alternative medicine practitioners for considering preventive health care and alternative health.
The Medical Director of the Crystal Hospital, Dr Wisdom Amegbletor, noted that the use of drugs was not the only way to manage ailments but also care and professional sensitivity one showed patients.
He said corruption was contagious, and therefore implored all clients to report any staff who did not perform his or her duties properly or tried to extort money from them.
Dr Amegbletor announced that the hospital had entered into a partnership agreement with all the communities in which it operated to form feedback teams to monitor its operations and the actions and inaction of the staff.
He said the hospital was moving from curative to promotional and preventive health by encouraging lifestyle change and healthy eating among the people.
Dr Amegbletor expressed his appreciation to Dr Charles Vardon Odonkor, who had run the facility as 'Odonkor's Clinic' but decided to give it out to the management of Crystal Hospital owing to his advanced age.
Dr Odonkor, who retired from active service four years ago, had run the facility for over 40 years and expressed his determination to ensure that a well-resourced and energetic person continued to provide healthcare services at the facility.
The Tema Mantse, Nii Adjei Kraku, praised Dr Odonkor for using the land for the purpose for which he acquired, noting that some people acquired lands for specific purposes but diverted them into other unapproved uses.
He urged the management of the hospital to take good care of the people and not to take their lives for granted. “If you do that your clients will desert you,“ he advised.
Nii Kraku also called on the management of the health facility to intensify efforts to adopt the home visitation exercise and maintain good customer service.