The Minister of Health, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, has affirmed that the government's free primary healthcare programme would fully take off in January next year.
He said in line with the programme, every Ghanaian, irrespective of where he or she may be or come from, would automatically access primary healthcare free without any hindrance.
The minister made this known during the 23rd annual general and scientific conference of the Medical Superintendent Group (MSG) held at Nkwatia in the Kwahu East District of the Eastern Region last Tuesday (October 14).
The meeting was also to discuss how best to address relevant issues related to Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs), which are increasing, and to develop strategic solutions to the problem.
It was also to enable the MSG to elect new officers to steer the affairs of the MSG for four years.
100 key stakeholders
The five-day event with the theme: "Leading the fight against non-communicable diseases (NCDs): the role of the medical superintendent in integrated care brought together over 100 key stakeholders, such as medical doctors heading various health facilities nationwide, as well as members of the Ghana Health Service Council.
Also present were the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Samuel Kaba Akoriyea, the Chairman of the Ghana Health Service Council, Professor Fred Newton Binka, representatives of the World Health Organisation (WHO), traditional rulers among others.
Mr Akandoh stated that a significant obstacle in Ghana’s journey towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC) was the cost. However, the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), intended to make coverage accessible to most Ghanaians, only enrolled about 56 per cent of the population.
Cost barriers
He indicated that the free primary healthcare policy was designed to remove cost barriers and, at the same time, enable people in underserved communities to access the free primary healthcare programme.
"What the government is currently doing is to ensure that at least primary healthcare is free and that will strengthen preventive care so we can regularly detect diseases at the early stages to be managed", Mr Akandoh stated.
The Chairman of the Ghana Health Service Council, Professor Fred Newton Binka, said Ghana's public health challenge had negatively affected productivity, family income and quality of life.
That, he stated, had resulted in many people dying at an early age.
He stated that NCDs such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, hypertension, chronic respiratory diseases, cervical cancers, among others, are no longer linked to the wealthy in society.
Such diseases, he pointed out, currently occur in every home irrespective of one's status and must, therefore, be tackled immediately to save lives.
Professor Binka was hopeful that the free primary healthcare would address all inherent issues of NCDs in such a way that no child would die from such diseases.
Government’s support
The Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Samuel Kaba Akoriyea, who was unhappy about the increasing nature of the non-communicable diseases in the country, called on medical doctors to support government policies and programmes to address the issue.
"You are the most strategically placed leaders in the health system, your leadership is most needed, you control the hospital's priorities, you influence clinical outcomes, you shape resource utilisation, you manage staff morale.
"So if we fail at the hospital level, we fail as a service completely and I believe the GHS must move forward and we have to enforce standards, we have to protect patients, we have to remove non-performance, we have to see you in action," Dr Akoriyea stated.
Growing burden
The Outgoing President of the Medical Superintendent Group, Dr Kamarudeen Korku Hussein, said this year's theme reflected the urgency of addressing the growing burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including cancers and that integrated people-centred care was needed.
Dr Hussein suggested that the increasing prevalence of NCDs has been further exacerbated by the impacts of illegal mining (galamsey), which directly threaten public health and put the nation's future at risk.
He, therefore, called for the support of the medical superintendent group to enable the government to immediately fight to end the illegal mining menace, which had polluted water bodies and destroyed farmlands and forest reserves.
He stated that medical superintendents and managers of health facilities must champion prevention, early detection and integrated care, while protecting the hospitals from systemic pressures, legal threats and resource limitations.
"We must also prioritise our own health and that of our teams to sustain the work we do for our communities, ensure professionalism in your health facilities to enable the people to repose confidence in your work as health professionals", Dr Hussein told the gathering.
Writer's email haruna.wunpini@graphic.com.gh
