COCOBOD CE SWORN IN AS GAQHI BOARD CHAIRMAN

Date: 14th July 2022

Hon Joseph Boahen Aidoo, the Chief Executive of Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), has been sworn in as the Chair of the 16-member board of the Ghana Association of Quasi-Government Health Institutions (GAQHI).

The association comprises some 54 autonomous and semi- autonomous state-owned institutions with independently managed health facilities, numbering over 400 across the country.

Performing the swearing-in ceremony, Hon. Kwaku Agyemang-Manu, the Minister for Health said the health facilities of GAQHI members are critical to the provision of quality healthcare to Ghanaians.

The institutions, he added were, especially helpful, when the government had to promptly set up facilities to manage infected patients during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

To easy future collaboration for the provision of quality health care, the government through, the Ministry of Health, will be working closely with the facilities of members of GAQHI and privately owned clinics and hospitals.

The collaboration, he said, would aid in the collection of vital health statistics to inform government policy, enable the integration of all health institutions onto a new government- led patient record management system, and as well help to properly role out upcoming health policy on non- communicable diseases, which are becoming the number one killer of Ghanaians.

In his response, the Chief Executive of COCOBOD, Hon Aidoo, thanked the minister for the trust and responsibility. He said the board and members of GAQHI will live up to the charge to foster greater collaboration among stakeholders to improve healthcare delivery.

“We are there as a body to complement the government’s provision of healthcare for the Ghanaian population. However, the critical thing about the association is that we are always looking for excellence at our health facilities, so, we always raise the bar for healthcare delivery for the benefit of the patients,” he noted.

“If we can team up to provide excellent healthcare, we should be able to solve all medical problems internally; and that is something that we should aim at,” he advised.

The other members of the board include Mr Michael A Luguje, the General of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA); Dr Charlotte Osafo, the Medical Director of the Bank Hospital; Mr Bice Osei Kuffuor, the Managing Director of the Ghana Post Company Limited; Mrs Emelia Agyei-Mensah, the Registrar of the University of Ghana, and Prof. Samuel B. Dampare, the Director-General of the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission.

Others are Dr Martha Gyansa-Lutterodt of the Ministry of Health; Rev. Prof. John Frank Eshun, the Vice-Chancellor of the Takoradi Technical University; Brigadier General Abugri, the Commander of the 37 Military Hospital; Commissioner of Police (COP) Dr Ebenezer Ewusi Emim, the Medical Director of the Police Hospital and Prof. Agyemang Badu Akosa, former Director-General of the Ghana Health Service.

The rest are Dr Moses Maclean Abnory, representing the founding fathers of GAQHI; Dr F. Kofi Asiedu, representing the past presidents of GAQHI, Dr Kabiru Koredele Azeez, the current President of GAQHI; Dr Vitus Victor Anaab-Bisi, the current Vice-President of GAQHI and Chief Maxwell Tidow, GAQHI’s General Secretary.