Improved rural healthcare as hospital administrators pick up on management principles

Service delivery in government hospitals received a boost during March when a group of hospital administrators and senior officials of the Mininstry of Health and Social Services, attended a training course designed to improve the operational side of the state’s health apparatus.

The training was conducted by the African Leadership Insitute. It focused on managerial input and not necessarily on the clinical aspects of running a public health facility. All the course participants expressed their appreciation for being able to attend a high-level leadership training seminar.

The tranees’ new level of competence will now be ploughed back into their hospitals and into the ministry.

Gebhard Ndishishi Mbombo from the Rundu State Hospital said for him the highlights of the training included transformational leadership, self-discovery, delivering results, building teams, mentorship and action plans. “It impacted me in a way that I am now able to strategise, prioritise, have goals and actions and know how to evaluate them” he said.

Hennely Doeses of the Windhoek Central Hospital said that the training has assisted her in her commitment to empower her teams and influence her superiors so that the overall operational ability improves at both the ministry and the hospital. Reflecting on what the course taught her, she said “Work relations with my colleagues have changed for the better as I know how to handle conflict and build a better team.”

Angzelle Cloete of the Hardap Regional Office in Mariental said she feels empowered to make a difference after the training and appealed to Leadership Institute to expand their training target groups to break the chain of poverty and substance abuse in rural areas through leaders who are able to influence people to turn their lives around.

All the trainess viewed the outcome of the training as very positive, stating that the constructive changes will help them to help both their colleagues and their patients to become positive members of society.

The African Leadership Institute’s courses for senior management in public health are sponsored by the FNB Namibia Holdings Foundation Trust.