ETHIOPIA: Catholic Health Institutions Prove to be Providing Quality Services
Group Photo of the participants
By Makeda Yohannes, CBCE Communications and Public Relation Officer
The 7th Annual General Health Assembly of the Ethiopian Catholic Church took place in Addis Ababa on September 29 -30, 2016. The theme of the assembly is “Towards health system strengthening and networking in providing quality and sustainable health care services through partnership with national and local government”.
Speaking on the occasion Rev. Fr. Hagos Hayish, C.M., ECS Secretary General said that the Church continues to strive serving the poor and the marginalized with quality health services. “The Church manages over 83 health institutions that provide curative and preventive services, most of these health facilities are located in very rural areas with limited communications and infrastructure facilities,” he said.
He also called on the Federal Ministry of Health and regional health bureaus to strengthen their ongoing collaboration with the Church for the smooth running of the health facilities in their service to the poor and vulnerable people of God. He also emphasized the importance of further developing the public private partnership in the health sector.
“We strive to be a leading partner of the government in addressing healthcare issues and contributing to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals to be implemented by 2030,” Fr. Hagos, C.M., added.
This year the Ethiopian Catholic Church Social and Development Commission (ECC SDCO) completed a gap assessment conducted on Catholic health institutions based on the government’s Food, Medicine, Health Care Administration and Control Authority (FMHACA) Standard. According to Mr. Bekele Moges, ECC SDCO Executive Director, the assessment that was done with the support of CRS Ethiopia is helpful in strengthening the quality health services the Church provides by identifying gaps and way forwards.
“The Catholic Health institutions general scored well in the assessment but at the same time we were able to identify our gaps in every sector thus now we can work towards filling our gaps and improving our services,” said Mr. Bekele.
He explained that following the assessment ECC SDCO is responding to fill the identified gaps by providing Information Technology materials, capacity building trainings for the staff and other needed assistance to the health facilities.
The findings of the assessment were presented during the assembly for experience sharing among the health facilities and discussed upon in details. With the assessment there is now a clear map of the Ethiopian Catholic Church Health institutions with good knowledge of their status.
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