Savannah Regional Health Director, Dr. John Ekow Otoo, has lamented the deficit of human resources in the region.
He made this known during the mid-year performance review meeting to evaluate the region’s activities for the first half of the year, themed “Management of Financial Resources for Building an Effective Health Care System for Improved Patient Outcomes.”
Speaking to the media after the meeting on Thursday, August 14, Dr. Otoo said that aside from community health nurses and general nurses, whose numbers are relatively adequate, all other categories of health workers remain in short supply.
He noted that the limited personnel available in the region often request reposting or transfers to other regions, creating a significant challenge for the health directorate.
“One of our key challenges is human resources. Currently, apart from the community nurses and the general nurses, where we seem to have relatively good numbers, all other sectors of health workers have a big deficit.
“Aside from that, the few that we have, many of them have worked in the region for quite a long time, and many are requesting to be transferred or reposted to other regions. As a region, we are doing our best to encourage the staff to stay with us and also encourage more health workers to come and help us,” he said.
The Savannah Regional Health Director further revealed that the directorate has initiated an incentive package for health workers to retain them in the region, including the renewal of their PINS and other benefits.
“One of the incentive nursing packages is the renewal of their PIN, and the information I have is that they have an arrangement with their nurses’ group for the group to renew for them, but unfortunately, it has not happened as planned.
“We are looking at how to do it, whether from the staff or the sector. It is one of the prerequisites, and we want to make sure we make it as efficient as possible so that we can have qualified health workers,” he said.
