GHS implements model health centres towards Universal Health Coverage

The Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, has said a total of 420 health centres are being upgraded into Model Health Centres to enhance quality primary health care.

The Model Health Centres, located in selected communities across the country, will provide 24-hour easily accessible and affordable healthcare services to healthcare seekers, particularly in rural communities, to reduce the incidence of maternal and child mortality and morbidity.

Dr Kuma-Aboagye said this on Wednesday, August 22, 2024 at the opening session of the 31st Annual General Conference of District Directors of Health Services (DDHS) Group held at Ada in the Greater Accra Region.

The annual conference serves as a forum for the heads of district health directorates to take stock, share ideas and best practices in order to improve the country’s health outcomes.

This year's conference was on the theme: "Accelerating towards Universal Health Coverage with a Strengthened Primary Health Care through the Networks of Practice Approach: The Role of DDHS and Stakeholders".

Dr Kuma-Aboagye said out of the proposed 420 model health centres, 153 of them across the 16 regions of Ghana had been identified, adding that contractors would soon be deployed to the sites.

He said the service had recruited 250 new Physician Assistants who would be deployed to the model health centres to offer affordable primary healthcare services to particularly rural dwellers to propel Ghana towards attainment of the Universal Health Coverage target in 2030.

Dr Kuma-Aboagye said universal health care was not merely a global aspiration, but a national imperative for Ghana,  stressing that in Ghana about half of the population could not count on having direct access to health services.

Embrace change

He said with barely six years to attain the Universal Health Coverage, there was the urgent need for service providers to begin to do things differently by unifying programmes, partners and stakeholders in our forward march towards a better health coverage using the network of practice approach (NOP).

The NOP aims to ensure the availability of adequate health infrastructure, equipment, trained and compelled workforce to provide high levels of care, strengthen referral linkages and facilitate resource sharing among modern health centres.

He assured participants of GHS’s continuous provision of human resources and equipment at all levels of healthcare services to improve primary health care across the country, and also charged them to show leadership by rationalising allocated resources to strengthen the organisation's service delivery capacity.

Dr Kuma-Aboagye said as part of GHS’s commitment to health information system, the service had invested in technology to facilitate real time data sharing and telemedicine, among others.  To that end, health facilities across the country have been connected to fibre systems to enhance digital health innovations.

He further revealed plans by the service to introduce a National Boat Service to provide primary health care to people in riverine communities in hard-to-reach districts.

Conditions of Service

The President of the DDHS Group, Dr Justice Thomas Sevugu, reiterated the call for better conditions of service for District Health Directors and improved infrastructure at the district level since they were the implementers of national health policies and programmes.

The Greater Accra Regional Director of Health Services, Dr Akosua Agyeiwaa Owusu-Sarpong, reminded the participants of their role in the implementation of the NOP within their districts, and urged them to prioritise the implementation of the policy towards the achievement of universal health coverage.

Present at the opening session were the Mankralo of the Ada Traditional Area, Nene Agudey Obitchere III, who chaired the function, the District Chief Executive of Ada East, Sarah Dugbakie Pobee; Coordinator, Health Systems, World Health Organisation Ghana Office, Dr Sofonias Asrat Gatachew, and the Director of Policy Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Division (PPMED) of the MOH, Dr Alberta Biritwum.

Writer’s email:Benjamin.glover@graphic.com.gh