GHS boss pays surprise visit to K’bu Public Health

The Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Professor Samuel Kaba Akoriyea, has paid a surprise working visit to various departments, programmes and units under the Public Health Division of the Service at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.

The visit, which took him to the National STI/AIDS Control Programme, the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI), the National Buruli Ulcer, Yaws and Leprosy Control Programme and the situation room of the Public Health Emergency Operations Centre, was meant to understand how exactly the places worked and find solution toproblems identified were fixable, they were immediately fixed.

It came to light during the visit last friday that staff had not reported to work but it was explained that they were on the field working.

Fortunately, most of the programme managers, unit and departmental heads were present to join the director general on his rounds in the offices, briefing him about what they were doing and where necessary, he offered advice.

Digitalise document

At the internal audit unit, where he visited the Global Fund Finance secretariat, procurement, reporting, analysis and budget units, Professor Akoriyea observed that they had many neatly arranged files there.

However, to make it easier to search for documents, he advised them to digitalise their documents.

At the situation room of the Public Health Emergency Operations Centre, where the director general saw how the monitoring of the cholera cases was being done the instant they occurred in any part of the country, he urged the team to make the website transparent such that whenever anybody visited there, they would be able to tell at first hand the cases that had been recorded and deaths just as it was done with the COVID-19 dashboard.

At the EPI office, he saw at first-hand the yellow cards for vaccination that were being prepared for dispatch to the major points of entry into the country such as the Kotoka International Airport.

Later, speaking to the media about the surprise visit, Professor Akoriyea said for some of the things he observed, he would have to sit down with the appropriate unit, department or programme to see how they could be addressed.

He urged staff under the service to expect more of such surprise visits from him to their offices throughout the year.