The Minister of Health (MoH), Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, has stated that as part of the government’s reform agenda, selected Agenda 111 health facilities would be opened for public-private partnership (PPP) completion and management arrangements.
To this end, he announced that the MoH has nearly completed a Private Health Sector Development Policy to improve coordination, regulation and investment between public institutions and private healthcare actors.
The minister was speaking at the 67th annual general conference of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) held at the University of Cape Coast, last Friday.
The conference was themed “Strengthening Public-Private Partnerships for Sustainable Healthcare Delivery.”
He highlighted the essential role of public-private partnerships in expanding access to care, modernising infrastructure and ensuring sustainable health delivery.
He extended an invitation to the GMA to explore the possibility of taking up some of these health facilities for completion, equipping and management.
Disparities
Touching on disparities in the distribution of health professionals, the minister noted that six teaching hospitals alone host 30 per cent of all medical doctors, while the Greater Accra and Ashanti regions, which together host 35 per cent of the population, account for almost 64 per cent of all doctors nationwide.
The conference
He described this as deeply concerning, revealing that two-thirds of the country was served by just one-third of medical doctors.
To address this imbalance, he stated that the government was implementing a deliberate decentralisation policy to deploy doctors directly to district health facilities, especially underserved rural communities.
He said this was to ensure equity rather than convenience, urging medical practitioners to see the policy as “a national call to service."
Mr Akandoh reiterated that medical doctors remained the backbone of the health system, revealing that 13,700 doctors and dentists were currently registered, with almost 17 per cent in the private sector and pledged the government's support for their well-being.
The minister also outlined progress on the Free Primary Health Care (FPHC) policy, designed to eliminate financial barriers to healthcare access.
Addressing issues of pharmaceutical access, he reaffirmed the government’s commitment to procuring at least 50 per cent of essential medicines from local manufacturers, strengthening national drug security and supporting local industry capacity.
The minister earlier toured the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital, where he stated that the government was adopting a bold approach to strengthen the country’s health information management system by adopting a state-owned national health records software, rejecting reliance on private vendors for sensitive data.
He stressed the need for the country to build systems that correct past gaps and ensure long-term consistency, transparency and national ownership of health records.
