Gomoa Buduatta, Sept. 17, GNA - The Gomoa East District Director of Health Services, Mr Samuel Sosi, has urged service providers in public health facilities to improve their services to their clients. He pointed out that the introduction of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) had broken the claim of monopoly public healthcare had over the private sector in treatment of diseases. "The poor and the rich can equally access healthcare in the public or private health facilities", he said, adding that what would now make the difference was the quality of service that would be provided. Mr Sosi made the comments at an in-service training workshop on client care and human relations for the staff of health facilities in the Gomoa East District at Buduatta.

It was organized by Samaamak Consult of Cape Coast with funds provided by the District Health Directorate.

The District Director noted that for public facilities to be able to meet the challenges posed by the NHIS, the workers must go the extra mile to improve the quality of services to their clients.

He urged them not to end the treatment of their clients at health facilities but must endeavour to follow them up to their homes to monitor whether they were abiding by the doctor's instructions or not. Mr Moses M. Abnory, representative of Samaamak Consult, and facilitator at the workshop, urged health workers to treat their clients with courtesy and respect.

Mr Abonry urged health workers to conduct research into the needs of their customers or clients to ensure that products and services were of real use to them.

"The customer or client is the lifeline of every organization, they make organisations to exist and grow", Mr. Abnory said, and advised them to allow clients to make choices since they had the right to do that. He urged them to admit their mistakes and apologise to their clients whenever they went wrong, adding that they must at all times avoid things which could lead to misunderstandings between they and their clients.

Dr. E.O.P. Agyenim Boateng also of Samaamak Consult who also facilitated the workshop, advised health workers to bear in mind that their facility depended on the customer or client for survival, and that the clients did not depend on the facility as they could obtain the service they need from any other service providers. He urged health workers to be practical and realistic. They should also not get emotional and overreact towards a customer. Topics treated included, "What is customer care?", "Maintaining customers", "Useful steps in customer care", "Dealing with an angry customer," and "Building a good customer relationship."