Korle Bu Hospital CEO shares his success factors

Listening to the Chief Executive Officer of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Dr Opoku Ware Ampomah, there is no doubt that his life is a testament of hard work and dedication.

As the CEO of the biggest hospital in the country, Dr Ampomah is regarded as one of the best plastic surgeons in the world.

This feat, however, did not come on a silver platter as it involved a lot of sacrifices. While schooling in the United Kingdom, Dr Ampomah sometimes had to travel for long kilometres just to watch and help some of his senior colleagues perform surgeries.

He has over the past 20 years contributed immensely to country’s health sector, both as a clinician and a manager. A graduate of the International Leadership Programme for Physicians at the Harvard University T.H Chan School of Public Health, Dr Ampomah was the first West African based practitioner to obtain the Intercollegiate Fellowship of the Royal Colleges of Surgeon, UK.

As the guest on the Springboard, Your Virtual University, a radio programme on Joy FM Dr Ampomah shared the top ten principles that has shapd his life.

1.   Finding your purpose: Every human being was created for a purpose and there is a certain space within which you will function best. If you are a fish, the best place for you to live is in water, so if you try to live on land, you will struggle. What is that core thing that you believe that you can do to the best of your ability? Many people are trying to copy what other people do but that may not necessarily be what you are suited for. Find your space and don’t follow the crowd.

Read: Talent can be your lifeline in COVID-19 period -Rev Ocran urges youth

2.   Hard work: No matter what area of endeavour that you are placed in, you cannot avoid hard work. A lot of people want to achieve success but are not ready to put in the work. In a discipline like medicine, you have to put in many hours of hard work. Hard work also involves being ready to apply yourself to the acquisition of knowledge.

3.   Humility: It is important that we are always humble and focused. Pride goes before a fall and we must be humble to learn and accept corrections. Sometimes as you climb up the ladder, it becomes a bit difficult to take criticisms and that is something you must avoid.

4.   Being humane: It involves being tolerant, forgiving and generous with staff and people around you. You need to be compassionate. See yourself as a channel through which other people can be blessed.

Read: Dr Opoku Ware Ampomah appointed new CEO of Korle Bu Teaching Hospital

5.   Honesty: Honesty has been underrated of late in our country and this is sad. We need to go back to that value because it is basic to the development of a country. No society will go anywhere if we do not look to restore this value. Dishonesty will make you miss opportunities.

6.   Be grateful: You need to have an attitude of gratitude. In life, those who are grateful do better than those who don’t. Many of us spend our time focusing on what we don’t have instead of appreciating what we have and fail to make good use of the resources available to us.

7.   Live a life of balance: Life is about balance and it is important to work hard, but it is also important to play, rest, have time for family and friends, engage with the community and the Church. All these are things that keep your life in balance. Life is not a one-way street where you do one thing and forget about the others.

8.   Courage: We need courage to stand up for our beliefs; we need courage not to give up when the going gets tough; we need it to develop resilience and to persevere in the face of difficulties. Many people know what to do, but it is about having the courage to actually do it.

9.   Pursue excellence: Excellence is a habit and one of the things that let us down is we don’t pay attention to detail. The world has become a global village and you are competing with the rest of the world, so it is important that whatever product you are delivering, it must be top-notch.

10. Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do: We live in a society where a lot of people complain about what is not there and what is lacking, but I believe every individual has got something to contribute to make the society better. Identify that little thing you can do and do it well.

Advise to public

Dr Ampomah also advisd the public to continue adhering to the protocols and guidelines of COVID-19.

He said it was too early for individuals to let down their guards because that could lead to a surge in cases.

“With the introduction of vaccines and people complying with the protocols, we hope to see an end to the pandemic, but it is too early to celebrate; we need to still keep our focus and stay within the guidelines and protocols so that we do not have the kind of disasters that are happening in some of the countries around the world.

“Once there seems to be a drop in infection rate, people become a bit careless because most people are not used to wearing face masks all the time, avoiding crowded places and regular hand washing and are, therefore, ready to let down their guards. We saw a bit of that during the Christmas period and then during the new year we saw an upsurge in cases.

“So we need to keep focus, be consistent and  disciplined in adhering to the protocols because that is the only way out,” he explained.