Health workers contributing to the decline of the health system in Ghana by being quiet
- People are generally selfish. They don’t care about others once they get what they want.
- People want the best services at the cheapest costs. They can decide to pay more and be seen well and quickly at private facilities, but they prefer to ‘beat the system’ using public facilities that they can manipulate for their personal and selfish interests.
- (Public) health institutions do not put in place structures to make things run smoothly. There should be ‘a minimum standard of care’ for everyone which does not depend on whether someone knows anyone in the institution. The processes must be transparent.
- If a doctor is asked to see over 50 clients in less than 8 hours (unacceptable but happens in some institutions), then we should all be aware and prepared to be one of the 50 patients, including being the last person to be seen.
- Health workers (including doctors) have not been bold enough to explain the above to many relatives and ‘big men/women’ and so continue to suffer in silence.
- Many, including health workers, would like to exploit these lapses in our system.