Accra: The Christian Health Association of Ghana (CHAG) has called on the Government to scale up and institutionalise the SafeCare's quality improvement programme in Ghana's health delivery system to ensure effective standards for measuring quality healthcare. The SafeCare's methodology had been tested in all the CHAG's facilities across the country and proven to be an effective standard for measuring quality healthcare, Dr Peter Yeboah, the Executive Director of CHAG, said at a public forum in Accra. He noted that the adoption and ownership of the standards by the CHAG network underscored the need to scale up the quality improvement programme in health services. 'Before piloting SafeCare, quality health delivery was aspirational in CHAG, but now there is a paradigm shift, therefore SafeCare has become an intentional, focused, and scientific way of measuring, rating and benchmarking the state of quality of service…,' Dr Yeboah explained. 'The quality of care is an integral goal of every health policy and should be the foundation of health services,' he said, noting that without quality, the unintended consequences of providing health services could be fatal. He emphasised that quality through SafeCare's standards was a value proposition for the entire health sector and should be a centrepiece for all the efforts of healthcare providers towards attaining Universal Health Coverage. Dr Yeboah was of the firm belief that tying NHIS claims to the quality of healthcare delivery by the service providers would catalyse improvements in quality standards in health facilities across the country. 'We have to move SafeCare from organisation to nationalisation so that the entire country would benefit from this scientific way of benchmarking the quality of healthcare provision in institutions,' he said. The PharmAccess Ghana, in collaboration with CHAG since 2019, has been using the SafeCare's standards and quality Improvement methodology to strengthen healthcare systems in the CHAG network. The collaboration has helpe d in building the capacity, enhanced skills and supported improvement in the quality of healthcare delivery at CHAG facilities nationwide. Ms Bonifacia Benefo Agyei, the Director for SafeCare Ghana, expressed the programme's commitment to elevating the standards of healthcare delivery. She said quality standards had saved many lives by improving health outcomes and reducing risks. It also improved efficiency in the operations of healthcare facilities because some of the facility managers adopted the SafeCare standards as a guide to run the operational systems of their hospitals and clinics. 'The Ghana Health Service is also coming on board to make the SafeCare-supported quality improvement programme a national initiative,' Ms Benefo Agyei said. 'We are looking forward to a future where quality becomes a culture and the norm in our healthcare system; we don't have to beg for quality,' she said. Dr Maxwell Antwi, the Country Director for PharmAccess, said healthcare facilities should become safe nets for everyone who needed healthcare, irrespective of who they are or where they come from. Source: Ghana News Agency