The Health Facilities Regulatory Agency (HeFRA), held an end of year Board and staff durbar on 19th December, 2018 at its office premises located at Cantonments. The Board and staff durbar was an opportunity for management and staff to interact and share their concerns with the Board of the Agency. After official introduction of staff and Board members, the Registrar presented his welcome address. Highlights of his speech include some key achievements for the Agency. These are:
- Validation of over 16,000 health facilities out of 33,000 anticipated.
- Licensing of 1429 facilities.
- Acquisition of new office accommodation for the Head Office
- Opening of 5 new regional offices.
- Creation of Management Unit for HeFRA. In this regard he commended Mr. Mark Dango, the previous HR, for his contribution.
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The Board members took turns to wish staff merry Christmas and commended staff for their contribution. They admonished staff to work hard to maintain standards at the health facilities. Staff were also advised to pay attention to detail during inspection and monitoring to maintain quality.
On the part of the Board Chairman, he wished staff merry Christmas. He took staff through the history of the Agency. According to him, the Agency existed as Private Hospitals and Maternity Homes Board since 1958 to licence private health facilities. It was only in 2011 that the parliamentarians saw the need to review the law to include the public health facilities which gave birth to HeFRA, an Agency to regulate both public and private facilities.
With regards to plans and activities for next year, he set an annual goal for staff in 2019 to license at least 100% more health facilities than was done in 2018. He promised payment of bonuses for achievement over the target. He also promised organizing a media soiree in the 1st quarter of 2019 with the major media houses to promote HeFRA’s activities and enforce the law by closing down facilities who insist on operating illegally. In view of this, the Board and the Registrar have taken the initiative by writing to the IGP with a copy of Act 829 as a way of passing on this information to the regional commands of Ghana Police Service to support the exercise during next year.
An MOU is also expected to be signed between Pharmacy Council to iron out issues relating to who has the mandate to license Pharmaceutical facilities. The expectation is that if this is concluded, it will enable the Agency work within its full mandate.