Busua, Sept. 21, GNA - Health Administrators and Support Services have begun a five- day national conference at Busua in the Western Region, to deliberate on how to improve quality care in all public health institutions. The conference is being held on the theme: "Improving health service provision- the role of Support Services in the light of dwindling resources."

Mr Peter Mensah, Deputy Regional Director of Administration of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), noted that health institutions nationwide are confronted with a number of challenges, which are hampering effective work.

He listed some of the challenges as obsolete equipment, inadequate vehicles, lack of capacity of storekeepers, deteriorating state of infrastructure, inadequate numbers of supply officers, transport and equipment managers.

Mr Mensah called on the authorities to reverse the trend in order to facilitate monitoring and supervision. The Deputy Regional Administrator said the conference would be a platform to initiate strategies to put in place a functional and more sustaining equipment replacement policy in the service. He said the National Health Insurance Act 650, Public Procurement Act, Internal Audit Act and Ghana Health Service Code have posed enormous responsibilities on health care providers especially in health commodity availability.

Mr Mensah expressed concern about the inadequate budgetary allocation for the GHS, saying it has declined from 16.2 per cent in 2006 to 14.6 per cent in 2009. 21 Sept. 10