Influence of Emergency Medicine Policy on Facility Capacity and Quality of Care at Government Hospitals in Tamale

Abstract

Health emergencies occur everywhere from the market place to the house to by the roadside, and each day they consume resources regardless of whether there are systems capable of achieving good outcomes or not. In a low resource country like Ghana policy and guidelines will play a very integral role in ensuring quality and efficiency of emergency services at all tiers of service. In 2011, the Accident and emergency policy was introduced to help strengthen the capacities of facilities in emergency care management. Northern region accounts for the most (20%) motorcycle fatalities in Ghana. The region is characterized by a huge land mass and population with poor communication and road network, lack of relevant data collection tools and low funding sources, leaves little doubt as to the reasons for poor health indices thus making it the weak link in the overall health system. Most facilities in Tamale are expected to be in the very early stages of implementation of the emergency policy and to have low capacity for emergency service delivery with a lack of strategic leadership, poor management and funding as postulated etiologies

Employing current policy and guideline tools from both the Ministry of Health and the African Federation of Emergency Medicine (AFEM), this study assessed the current emergency service delivery capacity of Tamale, the capital of the northern region, in selected facilities.

This study was a descriptive cross-sectional study, which employed quantitative and qualitative methods to elicit responses to the specific objectives. Data were reviewed over a four -week period from selected facilities at all four government hospitals in Tamale.

Results from all four health facilities shows the unavailability of health supplies as the leading cause of non-performance of emergency procedures, followed by no training, lack of human resources and infrastructure. The unavailability of a policy was the least reason for non- performance showing that the policy exists and people are aware of the emergency policy. However, policy availability however did not translate into the needed accoutrements for proper capacity building.

Conclusions: There is currently not much influence of the emergency policy on facility capacity and quality of emergency care in government hospitals in Tamale.

Recommendations: There is the need to provide the needed supplies, equipment. training, Infrastructure and human resource to help build needed capacity to provide emergency care at all levels.