Christian Health Association launches 50th anniversary

The General Secretary of the Christian Council of Ghana, Rev. Dr Kwabena Opuni-Frimpong, has charged the Christian Health Association of Ghana (CHAG) to make member-churches own the running of its health facilities.

He explained that as of now, partners were cutting down or outrightly withdrawing their support to the running of church-based health facilities and that there was the need for the church to rely on their members for the running of those health facilities.

Involvement of congregation

Delivering a fraternal message at the launch of the 50th anniversary celebration of CHAG in Accra yesterday, Dr Opuni-Frimpong charged CHAG to “send this celebration to the congregation for the members to know that the achievement of CHAG is their achievement and not your achievements”.

“Make this celebration, church members celebration because some of our hospitals, church members, through either tithes or offerings made significant contribution but they do not know, so at the moment, their commitment is waning and it is becoming difficult for us to mobilise resources from ordinary members from church contribution and services to the health service delivery,” he explained.

Birth of CHAG

The celebration is on the theme: “50 years of Christian Health Service delivery: Improving and sustaining innovations.”

The CHAG, founded in 1967, has the Ghana Bishops Conference, the Christian Council of Ghana and the Ghana Pentecostal Council as stakeholders and currently has a membership of 300 made up of 74 hospitals, 208 health centres and clinics as well as 18 health-training institutions.

Rev. Dr Opuni-Frimpong urged Ghanaian Christians to be prepared to sustain healthcare in the country, saying that could only materialise if CHAG explained to them what it had been able to achieve and what it sought to do moving forward.

What CHAG has done so far

Delivering the keynote address, the President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Ghana, Most Rev. Philip Naameh, said the provision of quality healthcare service to God’s people by CHAG member-institutions was a requirement for Christians to ensure the wholeness of the human person.

He said collectively CHAG health facilities had provided health, healing and hope to millions of people including mothers, children, the aged and the disabled.
“Hence, we have a cause to celebrate the 50th anniversary of serving as stewards and servants of Christ’s healing ministry,” he said, adding that the theme for the
celebration provided the appropriate context for the launch of celebration.
Most Rev. Naameh said CHAG-accredited facilities continued to provide quality and affordable healthcare delivery to majority of Ghanaians in the hard-to-reach communities.

“CHAG’s 50-year existence has facilitated equitable access to quality health care to the poor, needy, marginalised, neglected and vulnerable segments of the society,” he said, adding that by so doing, CHAG was complementing government’s effort in fulfilment of its mission to be a reliable partner in bringing health care to the greatest number of God’s people.

Rendering stewardship

The Executive Director of CHAG, Mr Peter Yeboah, said 50 years on, CHAG was still struggling to obtain equitable allocation of resources for health for Ghanaians, adding that the association was striving to attract critical staff to serve in the remote segments of the society.

He said the association needed strategic partnerships for successful and scalable interventions as well as effective operational frameworks to make health care more accessible, affordable and acceptable to “millions of Ghanaians who had legitimate claims on our vocations and professions”.

Mr Yeboah commended the church leaders of member facilities and founding fathers of CHAG and acknowledged successive governments’ abiding faith in CHAG as partners with complementary roles in addressing health inequalities at all levels.

Solidarity messages

Solidarity messages from development partners commended CHAG for focusing its services on the hard-to-reach areas where other health bodies declined to go and pledged their continuous support to CHAG as it strategised to rededicate its efforts to helping the vulnerable in society.