Nana Otuo Acheampong, the Board Chairman of HeFRA, who led the team, explained that following the promulgation of the Health Institutions and Facilities Act 829 of 2011, by an Executive Instrument, all health facilities, both public and private, must obtain an operation license from HeFRA, making it criminal to operate without such permit.

He said the new Act 829, has replaced the Private Hospitals and Maternity Home Act 9 of 1958, which was later amended by the NLC Decree 395 in 1969, to regulate only private facilities. He said the Ghana Health Service took care of those for the public sector, but now HeFRA’s mandate was to regulate Services, personnel and the infrastructure of the facilities. 

The Board Chairman said in view of this, officials from HeFRA had been collaborating with several health facilities, to help them through the requirement processes. The processes included the completion of application forms, inspection of their amenities, assessment of the calibre and professional standing of the personnel with their regulatory bodies, the type of services provided, infrastructure and the equipment used.

These basic requirements, he said, were very crucial, to ensuring the standardization of healthcare in Ghana, to ensure quality service delivery and also facilitate the achievement of Universal Health Coverage and the Sustainable Development Goal 3, which laid emphasis on quality and affordable healthcare for all.

Nana Otuo Acheampong, explained that, although the visit was not antagonistic, “facilities risked closure if they failed to comply with the directives and obtain their operational licenses by the end of March 2019. They have been given sufficient time by HeFRA to do so”.  

The Officials first visited the AKAI House Clinic, located within Cantonments, which has already obtained its operational license from HeFRA and boldly displayed at the reception area, and was commended for their swift compliance with the law. The HeFRA team, then made a stop at the GOKALS Optical branch at Osu-RE, where they explained to the representative of the Company, that it was required that each facility be licensed separately due to the fact that assessment results would vary from what pertained in the other setups within the same organisation.

At the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, the HeFRA officials had a brief meeting with the Chief Executive Officer, Dr Daniel Asare, behind closed doors before meeting with the media.Dr Asare explained that the management was still compiling the necessary documentation for its registration.

He said as a 2,000-bed capacity facility with five centres of excellence, and a total staff strength of 5,500, it needed to work extremely hard to get all details, hence the delay in obtaining the required operating license.  

He however assured the HeFRA Officials of the commitment of the hospital management to work within the timeline to obtain the certification. Dr Juliana Ameh, the Medical Superintendent at the Lekma Hospital at Teshie, also assured the team that the facility had already picked the registration forms and was being assisted by HeFRA to complete the requirements for their certification within the three-month timeframe, which ends in March. 

Mr Charles Bamfo, the Administrator of the facility, however called for support to improve the infrastructure and enhance the quality of service, and complained about the limited funding from the government, saying that, it was woefully inadequate to provide for the large weekly Out Patient turnout.

 Mr Matthew Yaw Kyeremeh, the Registrar at HeFRA, said the registration fee was GHC1,000.00, and that currently there was a total of 18,000 health facilities across the country, of which 1,466 were hospitals, clinics and maternity homes and the rest being pharmacies, who would be regulated by the Pharmacy Council.