Christmas at the hospital: A gift of unpleasant experience

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) The 2030 agenda of the Sustainable Development Goals, Goal 3, which focuses on good health and well being of the people, will elude Ghana if our health system remains the same without proper and adequate investments and infrastructure. It is the right of the Ghanaian to have access to quality healthcare and a solemn responsibility of the government to ensure that its people live in an environment secured by a proper and efficient health facilities. The Ghanaian have the right to expect a longer life expectancy rate much more than what we have in today’s Ghana. The laws of Ghana classify the health sector as critical and essential to the socioeconomic development of the country. However, government over the years has failed to ensure that the needed infrastructures and health logistics are adequately sought to cater for its citizens. Though the ultimate goal of achieving quality healthcare delivery lies on the shoulders of the government, there must also be the commitment from the private sector in ensuring that the kind of partnership and investments made in the health sector yield the necessary results as expected. Our private health delivery system must be made affordable and accessible to allow the ordinary Ghanaian benefit from a good and affordable quality health care. Health practitioners must live up to expectation Felix Marti Ibanez in his book titled: “to be a good doctor” concluded that a doctor must mean much more than to dispense pills or to patch up or repair torn flesh and shattered minds. He avers further that “to be a doctor is to be an intermediary between man and God”. Being a perfect health practitioner must mean being incredibly compulsive with a core role of helping patients to have a reason to live and not to dash their hopes to live. Our health practitioners must live beyond reproach and materialism. It seems most doctors and nurses are rather focused on how to make money instead of saving precious lives. This situation is complicated when most doctors and nurses who are employed by the government set up their own private hospitals on the blind side of the government by denying citizens who go to the public hospitals their services. I believe if Ghana can make any meaningful progress in our health sector, our policymakers must prioritize the sector to allow for a proper monitoring and evaluation systems that will effectively check the lapses that exist within the health system. The government must equally ensure that most public health facilities across the country are adequately resourced with the required medical logistics and infrastructure as required. More and well-resourced facilities are equally needed in the rural communities in Ghana as they are the most vulnerable. The 2030 agenda of the SDGs, especially SDG3 can only be attained if the government focuses more attention on healthcare delivery in the country, providing committed and competent professionals dedicated to their duties of saving lives, devoid of corrupt systems and poor managements, as most Ghanaian feels insecure in the existing health facilities across the country. By Samuel Creppy| The writer is a Public Relations practitioner Editors Note: The opinions expressed in this article are solely that of the writer and do not represent that of 3news.com whatsoever  ]]>