Council launches five-year strategic plan

Pg 3. Sat. May 10/08

Story Rebecca Quaicoe Duho & Kimberley Robertson

THE Nurses and Midwives Council (NMC) of Ghana has launched a five-year Strategic Plan aimed at propelling the health care sector to an international standard by 2012.
The strategic plan, which comes after 36 years of the council’s existence, is aimed at changing the image of the two professions and providing a more nurturing health care to the general public.
Launched in Accra yesterday, the plan has a vision to create a “globally acclaimed nursing and midwifery regulatory body of national pride”.
The Director of Human Resources for Health Development at the Ministry of Health, Dr Ebenezer Appiah Dankyirah, said human resource development was vital in improving health care in the country.
He therefore commended the council for developing the five-year plan, saying that “we cannot train people and not regulate them”.
Dr Appiah Dankyirah, who represented the Minister of Health, Major Courage Quashigah (retd), said the plan of action would ensure that nurses and midwives in the country provide higher quality health care services.
In a presentation on the overview of the plan, a consultant, Professor John Aheto, appealed to nurses and midwives to have a better knowledge of their organisational environment and to stay committed to the five-year plan.
He commended the NMC for creating an innovative and proactive plan.
“In Ghana, we often just wait for people to tell us what to do. Now, we are not only going to be leaders in the region, but the whole world,” he said.
Prof. Aheto, who developed the NMC strategic plan, said the underlining objectives of the plan were to serve public interest, reduce poverty, create wealth through health, provide quality health care and improve customer satisfaction.
The Registrar of the NMC, Rev. Veronica Darko, said she was happy that the plan was being launched after it had been on the drawing board for a year and said, “Words cannot describe how I feel to have seen this dream materialise”.
A new NMC website to increase awareness amongst nurses, midwives and the general public was also launched.
In her welcoming address, the Chairperson of the NMC, Ms Kathlyn P. P. Ababio, said the significance of the launch could not be overemphasised because it had come at a time when “our patients, clients and the general public are complaining about the quality of service that they receive from us”.
She hoped that by 2012, “every visitor to any hospital, clinic, health centre, or CHPS Compound in Ghana would have no choice but to acknowledge a turnaround in the attitude of our nurses and midwives”.