Coordinate activities to speed up policy implementation — Nsiah-Asare

THE Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Anthony Nsiah-Asare, has charged departments under the service to coordinate their activities to speed up the implementation of policies and programmes to achieve universal health coverage.

He said what they did at their respective departments had an impact on the people; and, therefore, urged them to build synergies to ensure they achieved their various targets for national development.

Dr Nsiah-Asare recognised the partnership that existed among agencies in the sanitation and environment sectors and the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP).

“The all-hazard approach for the detection of unusual health events makes identifying these synergies prudent since some expertise can be located outside the health sector,” he said and called on the GHS to strengthen activities of its Public Health Emergency Committees and also offer platforms for discussion on potential areas of common interest.

Event

Dr Nsiah-Asare was speaking at the 16th National Public Health Retreat of the GHS which began in Sunyani yesterday on the theme: “Accelerated health interventions with e-Health and other essential tools for achieving universal health coverage and sustaining the developmental goals”.

The four-day retreat is to enable key actors in the implementation of health policies and programmes to reflect on their mandates, core functions, performances, achievements, progress and challenges and brainstorm on modalities for effective integrated service delivery at all levels.

They will also discuss strategies that will contribute to a Global Health Security Agenda.

HIV prevalence

Dr Nsiah-Asare commended management and staff of the GHS for working hard to maintain adult HIV prevalence rate below two per cent over the past two decades.

He said the national prevalence of 1.7 per cent in 2018 and the continuing decline of linear trend among Ante-Natal Care (ANC) clients over the past 10 years attested to how the GHS had contributed to improving access to service delivery coverage through various interventions.

Dr Nsiah-Asare said in spite of prevailing challenges in implementation gaps, the GHS was determined to achieve the 90-90-90 aspirational goals to ensure that HIV spread was controlled sooner than the 2030 target.

Disease control

On malaria control, the director-general stated that there was more than 50 per cent reduction in malaria in-patient cases and 65 per cent reduction in malaria-associated deaths in the country.

“From 2014 to 2018, more than 18 million insecticide treated mosquito nets were distributed in the country through a Global Fund support,” he said.

Dr Nsiah-Asare, however, noted that the challenge with tuberculosis was its low case detection rate, which increased incidence of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (TB) from four in 2010 to over 200 in 2018.

The director-general said an Expanded Programme of Immunisation (EPI) coverage had steadily improved in most regions in the country.

“It is gratifying to mention that for more than 15 years, no child has died of measles as a result of positive impact of measles vaccination.
“The last case of guinea worm in Ghana was in 2010. Ghana was certified guinea worm-free in 2015. We remain free of guinea worm till date,” he said.

Partnership

The Director, Public Health Division of the GHS, Dr Badu Sarkodie, called on public health practitioners to inform, educate, empower and mobilise communities to identify and address health problems.

He also stressed the need to enforce laws and regulations that would protect the health and safety of the people.

The Krontihene of the Sunyani Traditional Area, Oboaman Bofotia Boamponsem, also called for collaboration between health authorities and chiefs for effective implementation of policies and programmes at the local level.