The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has developed grievance redress guidelines to provide clear channels for addressing complaints from patients, health workers, suppliers and contractors, as part of efforts to improve healthcare delivery and strengthen public trust.
The guidelines are being disseminated to health facility managers across the country through series of training sessions to ensure their effective implementation.
Speaking in Tamale during a training session for facility managers from the Upper East, North East and Northern Regions, Mr Joel Abekaliya, Coordinator, Risk Communication under the Health Promotion Division of the GHS, said the guidelines would institutionalise processes to receive, investigate and resolve grievances.
He said the initiative was necessary to address growing public concerns about healthcare services and further provide health workers and other stakeholders with appropriate channels to raise their concerns.
“Over the years, we have had a lot of complaints from the public, the people that we serve daily, concerning the services that we provide,” Mr Abekaliya said.
He explained that the guidelines would help the Service identify positive feedback and use it to improve service delivery.
As part of the implementation process, facility managers were expected to establish standing grievance redress committees to handle complaints and strengthen existing committees where necessary.
The Coordinator said the committees would include community members or representatives of aggrieved persons to ensure fairness and promote mutually acceptable resolutions.
He noted that the guidelines covered three main areas: complaints relating to health services, grievances involving suppliers and contractors, and administrative concerns raised by health workers.
Mr Abekaliya observed that some health workers were reluctant to report workplace grievances for fear of victimization, while others did not know the appropriate channels to report.
On complaints shared on social media, the Coordinator said the Service was concerned that unverified allegations could undermine public confidence before the issues were properly investigated.
“We are worried because if people do not trust the Service, that means that we have failed,” he said, emphasized the need to protect the public’s confidence in the health system.
Mr Abekaliya encouraged members of the public to use the formal complaint channels introduced by the Service, including mechanisms that would allow them to scan a code, log through the GHS website to submit complaints or seek assistance from designated persons to document their concerns.
He said the training programme would be extended to the remaining regions to ensure that facility managers nationwide understood and applied the guidelines effectively.
The initiative is expected to strengthen accountability, promote fair resolution of grievances and improve relationships between the GHS and the people it serves.
Mr Ebenezer Boakye Amponsah, Programmes Officer at the Institutional Care Division of the GHS, said the Service expected participants to disseminate information on the grievance redress mechanism to their colleagues to ensure that staff understood and applied the guidelines to achieve the document’s intended purpose.
Madam Catherine Ayoka, Chief Nursing Officer of the Upper East Regional Hospital, who participated in the programme, thanked Dr Samuel Kaba Akoriyea, Director-General of the GHS, for the initiative, and noted that the document would help staff resolve grievances within the Service.