A total of 60 medical and non-medical staff members of the Upper West Regional Hospital were at the weekend honoured for their diligence and putting out their best at its annual staff award ceremony in the regional capital, Wa.
In recognition of the excellent performance last year, they were presented with certificates and citation with the top four best awardees given prizes ranging from motorbikes to fridges.
Speaking at the event, the Medical Director of the hospital, Dr Robert Amesiya, said the event was to motivate staff to work harder and support the facility’s mission to deliver quality health services to clients as well as ensure the attainment of Universal Health Care (UHC) in the region.
“Human resource is our greatest means to realising the dream of achieving UHC, so from 2021, we started rolling out several motivational packages for staff; we started with the anaesthetics then to the doctors, nurses’ supervisors, unit in-charges and have now rolled out monthly motivation schemes that cover a large number of the nursing staff,” he said.
He mentioned that even though a few of the staff were not living up to expectation, he could confirm that about 99 per cent of them had executed their mandate beyond expectation, and said the awards would be given to the few who had really gone out of their way to distinguish themselves in the discharge of their duties.
The award-winning Medical Director mentioned that the event was one of the several measures management had put in place to ensure that the hospital was top-notch in terms of service delivery and customer care.
The Regional Director of Health Services, Dr Damien Punguyire, said the hospital was constantly working to improve on its service delivery and commended management of the facility, including the medical director, for the thoughtfulness they put into running the facility.
He lauded the introduction of an open day for residents and clients who were given the platform to provide feedback on service delivery at the facility for improvement.
“We should all be proud of what the hospital has been able to achieve, making it one of the best in the country with several awards, including the recent best hospital in the Ghana Integrated Logistics Management Information System (GhiLMIS) Utilisation Award,” he stated.
The Regional Minister, Dr Hafiz Bin Salih, commended the medical director for the distinguished leadership which according to him has made the hospital the best in terms of excellence.
“I have seen tremendous change in the health sector of the region; health staff now accept posting to the region and also stay, and this due to the good leadership of Dr Punguyire and Dr Amesiya,” he said.
A 33-year-old surgical nurse, Reagan Agyekum, went home with a new Apsonic motorbike for emerging as the Overall Best Worker for 2023, and his colleagues, Dr Sarah Dodoo Braimah, Madam Judith Dumong and Miss Zainab Salifu, both nurses, went home with a deep freezer, a 43-inch television and a table top fridge for placing second, third and fourth respectively.
FROM LYDIA DARLINGTON FORDJOUR, WA