A team of Senior Specialist Medical Officers from the National Department of Health was at Mt Hagen Hospital in May to conduct a week-long Health Services Standards workshop for clinicians, doctors and nurses.
The team of five deputy chiefs from various health disciplines at Health Headquarters was in Mt Hagen from 13 – 20 May as part of a nationwide tour to conduct workshops, highlighting the importance of maintaining high health standards within health facilities.
The respective deputy chiefs conducted power point presentations on their respective areas of responsibility in the first four days and later got the participants to do physical inspections of their respective areas in the next two days before presenting their findings on the last day.
Western Highlands Provincial Health Authority Chief Executive Officer, Dr. James Kintwa said he appreciated the team for coming to Mt Hagen, adding it was history for WHPHA to have Senior Health Specialists spend a week with the staff.
“This is a blessing for us – it is the start of a long road and we must use standards to see where our gaps are. None of us can fill the gaps overnight or in 1 – 2 months but if we can’t do them, we are doing injustice to ourselves”, he said.
Dr. Kintwa said clinicians would take the leading role in this together with the specialist medical officers and curative health had a big role to play in the maintenance of high health standards within this organization.
“I have been involved with standards in this organization for a long time and this is a challenge for SMOs and clinicians to take the lead and do it”, he said.
He added that accountability was important and that everyone must be accountable to themselves in order for other things they do to fall in line.
Dr. Kintwa said the WHPHA is accountable to its partners, the government and the public and the processes and care it provides must be safe, adding that standards would become prominent in the restructure process.
“We are accountable to the public and I am asking clinicians to lead us and others in corporate services”, Dr. Kintwa said.
He said the Senior Executive Management (SEM) team supported this work and therefore funded the visit of the senior specialist medical officers.
He said the SEM team looked forward to seeing the final report and thanked everyone who participated in this exercise.
