Hospital Managers in the 38 hospitals within the National Catholic Health Service have been admonished to prioritize public health issues and to establish Public Health Units within their facilities.
The call was made at a training session for the managers at the 2017 Hospital Managers Retreat held at Koforidua.
Dr. Anita Appiah, Coordinator of Community and Institutional Care at the National Catholic Health Service, took participants through the guidelines of the Ghana Health Service for public health units in hospitals, purpose and objectives of institutional public health units, staffing, reporting and funding of the Public Health Unit.
Public Health is defined as the science of promoting and protecting the health of people and the communities where they live, learn, work and play.
Public Health Units (PHU) in hospitals have long been identified as the appropriate institutions to co-ordinate public health activities within hospitals, to serve as the link with Metropolitan, Municipal and District Health Directorates for responses to be made and data generated from PHU activities allow for prompt notification of priority health events and timely response.
Among the functions of the Public Health Unit are to coordinate public health programmes in the hospital, provide immunization and child welfare services , provide screening services for non-communicable diseases –HPT, DM, Cancers, Eye, Dental, etc, promote healthy living and life styles ,provide health information to patients, clients and staff, review daily OPD consulting room, ward, registers for diseases of public health importance and take appropriate action and undertake surveillance on epidemic prone diseases and health care associated infections.
Epidemic – prone diseases include Cholera, Diarrhea with blood (shigella), Measles,Meningococcal /peumococcal meningitis, Viral hemorrhagic fevers, Yellow fever, Poliomyelitis, Dracunculiasis, Leprosy, Neonatal TetanusRabies.
Other diseases of public health importance include Buruli Ulcer, Diarrhea in Children < 5 years, Lymphatic Filariasis, Viral Hepatitis, Pneumonia in Children <5 Years, Onchocerciasis, STIs, Schistosomiasis, Trachoma, Yaws.
The role of the manager in public health include identifying responsibilities for the process of implementation, evaluation and regular review of the activities of the public health unit, to allocate resources to the processes of implementation, evaluation and regular review of the activities of the unit and to ensure that staff are aware of the public health policy and it is included in induction programmes for new staff.