A Deputy Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr George Amofa, says the Ghana health profession is losing one of the core values of the service: the human touch or empathy.

"The attitude of those without empathy (or compassion) is a recipe for calamity if not checked."

Empathy is the ability to imagine and share another people's feelings and experiences, and it is seen by medical sociologists as one of the cardinal tenets on which therapeutic and restorative health should subsist.

Besides being a health service tenet, it is also a Ghanaian ethos which is ingrained in the cosmology of the people.

However, Dr Amofa feels that this value is on the decline as can be seen in the lackadaisical manner with which some health personnel approach their work such as attending to accidents victims rushed to their care.

"It is sickening to see them sit unconcerned even as accident victims are rushed to hospital", bemoaned, the Deputy Director-General.

Dr Amofa was addressing 35 selected health personnel at Cape Coast on Thursday at a leadership development programme being spear-headed by the GHS to bring personnel up to date on management skills essential in offering a more efficient service to clients.

He stressed the need for personnel to put in their utmost to ensure good health for the people, stressing in particular, the need for health professionals to be honest, transparent and accountable in the discharge of their duties.

Such attributes, he noted, are essential in developing a formidable teamwork among health personnel in the country.

The Central Regional Director of Health Services, Dr Aaron Offei, said that the concept of leadership constituted a major challenge to the institution as it plays a determining factor in health care delivery.


Source: The Ghanaian Times