Community health workers undergo data collection training

Community health workers from 20 districts in the Ashanti Region have been equipped with coded 240 iPads and smartphones to collect data on illnesses on each household, after undergoing an intensive scale-up trainer of trainees programme in Kumasi last Monday.

The data will be processed and sent to a server to provide instant treatment to prevent avoidable deaths.

The project, which seeks to reduce cases of malaria in particular, is under the ‘One Million Health Workers Campaign’ of the Millennium Promise Ghana, an international non-governmental organisation (INGO), in collaboration with the Regional Health Directorate and the Youth Employment Agency.

How it works

Under the scheme, each patient is given a code for future references, and also to facilitate referral to the district health facilities.

The health workers have been upgraded in tele-medicine, e-health and geographic information system to handle and provide instant solutions.

The phones and iPads would be used for live communications or sending of pictures of complex situations to a server for direction or referral to the district health facility.

Already, 20,000 community health workers have been deployed across the country to support Ghana’s primary health care and the Community-based Health Planning and Service (CHPS) compound health delivery.

However, unlike those in the Ashanti Region, including Amansie Central, Amansie West, Asokore Mampong, Bosome Freho, Ejura Sekyere-Dumasi, Sekyere Central and Sekyere Kumawu, who can treat patients instantly, those from the other parts of the country only collect data.

The project is expected to prevent avoidable deaths in the rural areas by 2020.

It is a follow-up to the Millennium Village Project (2006-2015) which used agriculture, health and education to reduce poverty in the Amansie West District in the Ashanti and Northern regions.

It is being sponsored by the GlaxoSmithKline and British Telecom, all in the UK.

Regional director

The Ashanti Regional Director of Health Services, Dr Alex Nang-Beifubah, said the upscale training programme was being increased from seven piloted districts to 20 because of its success story in solving basic health issues which otherwise would have increased the death toll in the region.
He said the health workers were to help build a healthy community and to ease pressure on the government.

Country director

The Country Director of Millennium Promise Ghana, Chief Nat Ebo Nsarko, said the programme was being operated in 20 African counties, adding that plans were afoot to cover the rest of the continent.

He said it was to strengthen Ghana’s CHPS strategy and provide catalysts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals three and eight, to achieve Universal Health Coverage and create employment for the youth.