A group of eight senior specialist clinicians from the Western Highlands Provincial Health Authority (WHPHA) has become the first among its colleagues to graduate as middle managers from the IEA TAFE fully funded by the WHPHA.
The group comprising five senior medical officers, a dental officer and a pharmaceutical manager were presented with their Diplomas in Public Management during a ceremony at the Airport Motel in Mt Hagen last Friday, 22nd April 2016.
The medical professionals had completed six months of theoretical training at the Mt Hagen International Education Agency’s College of TAFE and had all completed the training successfully, resulting in their graduation.
The Management of the WHPHA had negotiated with the International Education Agency to run the course for its senior clinicians to equip them with the necessary management skills to manage their functional units to achieve good patient outcomes.
This is in line with the Authority’s plans to provide ongoing training for its employees to equip them with the necessary skills to help take the organization forward and provide quality patient care for the people of Western Highlands and the Highlands region.
The WHPHA Management had approved and funded the training at a total cost of K54,000. Seven of the eight participants had completed all the modules of their training and were presented with their diplomas while one of them had yet to complete a module before graduating.
Those who received their diplomas included Senior Physician, Dr. Kipas Binga, SMO Gynaecology & Obstetrics, Dr. Joseph Kuk, SMO Pediatrics, Dr. Jonah Kurubi, SMO & deputy chief ENT specialist for the Highlands, Dr. Sam Endican, SMO Surgery, Dr. Timmy Tingnee, Dental Officer, Bob Nonongi and Pharmaceutical Manager, Paul Kawage. Deputy Chief Surgeon for the Highlands, Dr. Benjamin Yapo has one more module to complete before graduating.
Senior executives of the WHPHA led by the CEO, Dr, James Kintwa, IEA tutor, Ms Maria Kiagi, Western Highlands Governor, Rt Hon. Paias Wingti’s Executive Officer, Barry Rungwa, Department of Western Highlands Executive Officer, Steven Moka and family members of the graduates were present to witness the small but significant occasion.
Dr. Kipas Binga said at the outset that the diploma was simply a folded paper indicating that the knowledge and skills acquired were in the mind but they needed to unfold it and use the skills and knowledge that they have gained to benefit their units and the organization they served.
He said the group comprised of middle managers and that the skills that they had acquired would help them to operate between the decision makers (top management) and the implementers below them to run an organization effectively.
He thanked the WHPHA Management for recognizing the importance of this course and sponsoring them as this had now “helped them to see the other side of management” which would help them to make informed decisions.
Chief Executive Officer, Dr. James Kintwa said that training of human resources is important and the WHPHA allocates K400,000 for training each year.
He said the need to train middle management staff was important and the Management had recognized this with several other trainings already conducted using other training organizations and had budgeted for staff to attend short and long term courses.
Dr. Kintwa said there were plans to train more middle management staff including nurses and he was thankful to IEA for accepting and running courses for WHPHA.
He added that following the success of this course, other staff including nurses and other managers at Mt Hagen Hospital, rural health facility managers and District Health Officers would be brought in so that they too could be trained in middle management skills to assist them in their work.
“I challenge you graduates to use your new skills to lead your teams to produce results. We will support you in what you do in your workplace to improve service delivery”, he said.
