Bagbin to return to Health Ministry

• Professors, Doctors Panic As..

•They Fear His Checks & Balances Will Close Avenues Of ‘Chop-chop’

Reliable information gathered by These Reporters indicates that, with the high rates of corruption, mismanagement and abuse of power that have bedeviled the Health Sector, especially the nation’s foremost hospitals, the former Minister of Health Hon. Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin would be returning to the Ministry as the Sector Minister to turn things around and ensure sanity.

He is also to put such checks and balances on the leadership of the nation’s healthcare services providers, such as the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, OkonfoAnokye Teaching Hospital among others so as to rid the institutions off reported cases of corruption, mismanagement and abuse of power by Board Chairmen, Chief Executive Officrs[CEOs] and hospital administrators.

But, this laudable decision by the President to bring Alban Bagbin back to the Ministry is somehow sending fear and panic into hospital Administrators, Board Chairmen, Professors at the hospitals as well as Doctors and the administrative staff who have over the years, believed to have soiled their hands in some form of illegalities.

These people, according to information from most Hospital setup, especially the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital are not too happy about the impending development and prefer government maintains the status-quo.

However, information available from the seat of government indicates that Hon S. Bagbin who assumed office as Minister of health on 9th February 2012 and served for only a year, had good plans for the development and improvement of the Health Sector and had also begun implementing major reforms; hence government has recognized his ambitions to rid the sector off corruption and mismanagement.

“You see if Hon. Bagbin were to be allowed to stay in that Ministry till now, he would have achieved a lot. This is a man who had the courage to stand against the numerous illegalities engaged in by some hospital Board Chairmen and their Chief Executives. I think his coming back will be the best thing that will happen to our health sector,” a source at the Presidency hinted.

The source also hinted that the direction at which the nation’s health sector is moving, it will need some major revolutionary measures to save its dwindling image and that Hon. Bagbin is the best to implement that, considering what he started when he was the sector minister.

It would be recalled that barely two days in office as the Health Minister Alban Bagbin begun visiting all hospitals to familiarize himself with the activities being undertaken there.

His visit revealed major administrative lapses at the premier hospitals and hence his actions.

He directed the Chief Executive of Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital to stop the collection of GH¢50 from private nurse-trainees as practical fees. This had been going on at the blind side of the Ministry. This directive had met some resistance.

Alban Bagbin had also signed Performance Contracts with two key agencies under his leadership, the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and the three Teaching Hospitals in Ghana.

This contract was intended to instill a new culture of punctuality, diligence and team spirit as the guiding principles that govern the work of the Ministry of Health.

The then Health Minister was committed to executing his promise to the people of Ghana and the late President Mills in ensuring that all Directors and Departmental Heads, from the National down to the District levels signed a Performance Contract, which would be rigorously monitored to ensure that the ordinary Ghanaian enjoyed the full benefits of their tax money.

Mr. Bagbin at the time indicated that he would personally be paying both scheduled and surprise visits to offices and agencies, as part of his resolve to help enshrine a new sense of mission and purpose throughout the health care delivery chain, which he kept in faith until the appointment of a new Minister.

Many people who had the opportunity to speak to us on the matter of Bagbin’s return to the Health Ministry described his leadership style as a “results driven style of leadership,” because he was able to, unlike others, exhorted all sector Directors under the Ministry to live up to their calling as care givers.

He also identified generally obstructive inter-agency relationships, which tend to compromise service delivery to the Ghanaian stakeholder. To this end, he called for a vigorous rationalization of the existing institutional reporting mechanisms in order to deliver an important dimension of the President’s Better Ghana Agenda to the people of Ghana.

His coming back to the Ministry has become headache to the Board Chairman and other members of the Korle-Bu Board, who are of the view that if his coming back materializes, then there is a great danger of the Korle-Bu Board facing dissolution as he (Bagbin) had on several occasions called for and recommended the dissolution of the board.

Information gathered from the hospital is that the unbridled corrupt activities, illegalities, mismanagement that have overwhelmed the operations of the hospital, and which have gone on unchecked would all be exposed through the checks and balances Hon. Bagbin would be bringing on board.

However, lots of people welcome the idea and are calling on the President to be quick with his decision and bring Hon. Alban Bagbin back to the Ministry of Health to save situations.

Although majority of Ghanaians welcome the idea, they also attributed the problems the health sector is facing to the frequent change in the sector Ministers. The Ministry of Health, according to the people is the only ministry that has about four ministers within 2 years.

“This is not good for our forward march. I think SepaYankey or Bagbin is the best for that Ministry and for the President to recognize that and decide to bring Bagbin back, we must support that idea,” a former Health Administrator indicated.