The Chairman of the Pentecost Church of Ghana, Apostle Eric Nyamekye, has expressed satisfaction with the performance of the Pentecost Hospital at Madina.

The commendation is in respect of its current ranking at level 4 on the PharmAccess SafeCare quality assessment programme.

According to him, the improvement in the rank of the Hospital is testament to the Hospital’s productivity and the commitment of the Church to excel in the area of quality healthcare delivery.

Receiving the honour on Tuesday, June 14, he thanked the delegation from PharmAccess Foundation and reiterated the Church’s vision of building more facilities to complement existing ones to serve the interest of the general public.

To this end, he said: "When God called me, he gave me a message. The message is to possess the nation; that is to influence society. And so from the day one, we have not distanced ourselves from the society.

I think that the relevance of the Church, apart from going to heaven, is the impact it makes on society. And it is holistic. Because we are here talking about health, that is why we are leaning to health. Otherwise, every sphere of the society, we want to influence”.

Apostle Eric Nyamekye added that the Pentecost Church will cooperate with PharmAccess to ultimately progress to Level 5 in the Foundation’s quality assessment ratings.

Touching on the rationale behind the Church’s decision to undertake the construction of hospitals and other health-related facilities, he explained that, it is important for the body of Christ to extend its influence to other vital areas of society.

In that regard, he added that: “when you are talking about health, of course the first unity that we have is actually strength. We are [also] talking about life. Because you can't talk about people going to farm when they are all sick.

So we want to prioritize that and see how healthy we can make people to be. So that they can also influence the other spheres. And so for us now, we are not bringing any dichotomy between the spiritual and the secular. We don't have that in the church”.

Apostle Nyamekye further intimated that plans are in place to build more health facilities in other parts of the country, towards the provision of quality healthcare for all.

In that regard, he said, “We are trying to impact the society and we want to actually push [and] do our best to inspire the Pentecost Hospital [and] to inspire the other ones. We are still building a lot of the clinics in the north and in Ashanti, [and in] Brong Ahafo, we're also building.

Then we're trying to improve the rest that we have to, to a hospital status. And it is the vision of the Church that is really inspiring us to affect the society”.

On his part, the Country Director of SafeCare, Mr. Maxwell Antwi, applauded the Pentecost Hospital for climbing to level four of his outfit’s assessment.

He thanked the management and staff of the Hospital, for doing a yeoman’s job.

Mr. Antwi was hopeful for better prospects and charged the Chairman of the Church, Apostle Eric Nyamekye, to strive to build at least one hospital facility, which can climb to the ultimate peak of level 5.

Mr. Maxwell Antwi spoke about the progressive partnership between his outfit and the National Health Insurance Authority, towards quality healthcare delivery to the populace.

“We're also helping the NHIA to go digital with all their claims management. Currently, the NHIA receives 30 million paper claims every month for processing. And I always say that if you need to process that, you need a whole army. So we're helping them to move from manual processing of claims that they receive from the health service providers to electronic claims. We're happy to indicate that Pentecost Madina is fully on electronic claims management”, he added.

Reacting to the recognition by SafeCare, the Director at the Pentecost Hospital, Reverend Dr. Edward Ako Koranteng, also expressed his happiness and thanked SafeCare for the honour extended to the Hospital.

Speaking in an exlclusive interview with JoyNews, he also thanked the leadership of the Church and expressed his willingness to help the hospital attain greater heights in the future.

Senior Medical Officer at the facility, Dr. Ama Agyemang-Duah underscored the benefits the Hospital has derived from its partnership with PharmAccess, and thanked the staff for working assiduously to improve its ratings.

Head of Medical Services at the Hospital, Dr. Philip Sarpong also expressed joy about the recognition and optimism about the future of the Hospital.

With state of the art equipment and a dedicated staff, the Pentecost Hospital at Madina, which is part of one of other hospitals under the Christian Health Association of Ghana (CHAG), serves hundreds of indigenes who frequent the facility for their medical needs.

The assessment by SafeCare will go a long way to boost the Hospital’s reputation and profile in the health services delivery industry.

This is because, according to the PharmAccess Country Director, Mr Maxwell Antwi, the SafeCare programme under the PharmAccess Foundation is internationally recognised by the United Nation’s International Society for Quality.

Apart from the Pentecost Hospital at Madina, other health facilities under CHAG have also attained level 4 of the PharmAccess SelfCare.

They include; the St Francis Xavier Hospital, Assin-Fosu; Holy Family Hospital, Techiman and the St. Joseph Hospital, Nkwanta.

About PharmAccess Foundation and SelfCare

The goal of PharmAccess is to make inclusive health markets work in sub-Saharan Africa. Realizing that the first wealth is health.

PharmAccess challenges the notion that exclusion from essential healthcare is an inevitable consequence of living in poorer countries and identifies the opportunities and partners – both private and public, needed to bring about holistic transformation in failing health markets.

Focusing on the very root causes that hamper health care financing and investments towards equitable and quality health care in sub-Saharan Africa, the organization works as an innovator and catalyst for pragmatic solutions that can be adopted, adapted, and scaled by partners.

PharmAccess also works with an integrated approach that addresses both the demand and supply side of the health care system and uses the opportunities that mobile technology and data provide to leapfrog development in health markets in sub-Saharan Africa.

The organization also aims to inspire viable and resilient health markets that provide access to care for millions of people in Africa.

Through public-private partnerships, PharmAccess focuses on; promoting basic health insurance plans and other innovative demand-side financing options to protect people from financial hardship; introducing quality standards and improvement methodologies (SafeCare) for health care providers to increase transparency and stimulate efficiencies; facilitating and stimulating loans, business support, and investments for private health care providers; and innovating value-based health care solutions and financing, using data to empower health care consumers, patients, doctors and financiers alike.

PharmAccess cherishes partnerships in achieving these tasks.

On the other hand, the goal of SafeCare is to inspire the improvement of quality and safety in healthcare delivery through innovative approaches such as the use of digital solutions.

Providers in emerging healthcare markets often face very basic problems: staff and supply shortages, inadequate infrastructure, and poor access to potable water and electricity.

Setting and improving quality standards in these challenging environments is the central mission of SafeCare.

The ambition of SafeCare is to create a global platform of organizations and people willing to pursue innovative approaches to improve clinical quality, using transformative digital solutions to challenge the status quo and strengthen trust in the healthcare system.

This is achieved through its three core values of transparency, collaboration, and building value.

In the last decade, SafeCare shares results, stories and learnt lessons and provides real-time data on the scale, scope, and quality of services; all in the bid to improve the quality and safety of healthcare delivery.

By collaborating through global and national partnerships, SafeCare intends to create the greatest possible impact with minimal resources.