2023 Health sector under review
In 2023, the country and the world over were still recovering from the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war.
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The health sector, which was one of the hardest hit in the country, is still recovering with a lot of interventions and initiatives, some of which include the governments’ Agenda 111 projects.
One of the country’s pillars of achieving quality health care is to achieve the goal of Universal Health Coverage and the country has identified Primary Health Care (PHC) as one of the key strategies in implementing the roadmap for UHC in Ghana.
The Daily Graphic by this review seeks to bring the spotlight on some of the major happenings in the sector in 2023.
January Amnesty for auxiliary nurses
Auxiliary nurses who studied for higher certificates without prior approval of the government were given amnesty in January 2023.
As a result, nurses who genuinely acquired general registered nurses certificates and their equivalent were upgraded from auxiliary to professional nurse status.
Global Fund
The Global Fund allocated $234 million to Ghana to enhance the fight against HIV/ AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria from 2023 to 2025.
The grant was also to help the country to build resilient and sustainable systems for health.
After they received the allocation letter, the Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM) of the Fund, chaired by the Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, launched the mandatory stakeholder dialogue series to solicit inputs nationwide for better delivery of the grant.
February Malaria vaccine
The Ghana Health Service (GHS) launched the National Expansion of the Malaria Vaccine Implementation Programme in Sunyani, the Bono regional capital, to help eradicate malaria by 2030.
It was on the theme: "Malaria Vaccine for Additional Protection".
It was done in partnership with the World Health Organisation (WHO), UNICEF and Programme for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH), among others.
March
Launch of Public Health Strategic Plan
The Ministry of Health launched a national plan to enhance response to public health emergencies through human resource restructuring.
Known as the Public Health Strategic Plan, the five-year strategy outlines guidelines to address major barriers to respond to public health emergencies such as human resource distribution and recruitment.
Over 500,000 living with glaucoma
More than 500,000 Ghanaians are living with glaucoma, while more than 90 per cent of the number have gone irreversibly blind from the preventable and treatable eye condition.
The Ophthalmological Society of Ghana (OSG), which disclosed this, said the prevalence rate of eight out of every 100 people sampled in the country made Ghana’s burden the second highest in the world, after Barbados.
NHIA receives $5m US support
The United States has provided a $5-million financial support under a partnership agreement with the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) to improve the performance of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and ensure quality of health services.
The agreement to that effect was signed in Accra for the commencement of the programme, which also ensured the digitalisation of NHIA processes to make its performance data available and ensure that health service delivery was safe and effective.
The scheme is expected to provide $1.7 million in the form of counterpart funding for the five-year partnership support.
April Bono East gets medical store
THE Bono East Regional Minister, Kwasi Adu-Gyan, in April 2023 inaugurated the refurbished Bono East Regional Medical Store to improve the medical supply chain and health outcomes in the region.
The upgraded 13-room facility, which had been abandoned for more than 10 years, now has a quarantine zone, administrative rooms and offices for store managers, accounts and Regional Supply Managers.
The facility, which used to serve as the erstwhile Brong Ahafo Regional Medical Store, was abandoned after the then regional medical store was moved to Sunyani.
FDA approves new R21 Malaria vaccine
The Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) granted approval for the marketing of R21 Malaria vaccine which was developed by the Oxford University in the United Kingdom.
The vaccine was manufactured by the Serum Institute of India Pvt. Ltd, and submitted through the local agent DEK Pharmaceutical Ghana.
Ghana became the first country to have been given the authorisation to market the vaccine.
Veep inaugurates catheter lab for KBTH
The Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, inaugurated a newly constructed catheter laboratory for the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) in Accra and urged hospitals to consider partnerships with private entities willing to provide and maintain such equipment for a service fee in the context of a private public partnership.
The million-dollar laboratory, which was funded by the Bank of Ghana as part of its corporate social responsibility, has a big detector, dyna CT and road map software, as well as a 3D workstation.
May Nation records reduction in neonatal, maternal mortalities
There was a decrease in neonatal and institutional maternal mortalities in the country.
While the former decreased from 7.1 per 10,000 births to 6.5 per 10,000 births in 2021, institutional maternal mortality ratio (IMMR), also reduced marginally from 111 per 100,000 live births to 102 per 100,000 over the period.
The Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, who made this known, said although the figures seemed marginal, they were remarkable gains.
UGMC launches
NCD Saver APP
A digital application that allows patients to remotely enter their daily blood pressure and blood sugar measurements to be monitored and managed by doctors in real-time was launched by the University of Ghana Medical Centre (UGMC), in collaboration with PharmAccess Foundation and a medical software company, Luscii.
Dubbed the “NCD Service APP”, the programme would support mostly hypertensive and diabetic patients with self-management tools to access healthcare services without necessarily visiting the hospital frequently.
It is also aimed at monitoring and reducing the morbidity associated with Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) in the country.
June TTH gets new paediatric theatre, CT scan
A new CT Scan and Children’s theater was inaugurated at the Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH) to offer specialist surgical operations and care to children.
Initiated by the International Child Cleft Foundation, Smile Foundation and KidOR, the paediatric theater furnished with cutting-edge equipment is tailored towards meeting the surgical needs of children.
The facility is expected to improve child healthcare delivery at the hospital which serves as a major referral center in northern Ghana.
The new CT scan is also expected to complement the existing one which has been breaking down frequently due to pressure on it.
National health summit
Participants in this year’s national health summit were urged to come up with suggestions on how the nation can mobilise funds domestically for sustainable healthcare financing.
The Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, said such financing was key to delivering the Universal Health Coverage by 2030.
“We believe that this commitment can be achieved through strategic investment in primary healthcare (PHC) programmes,” he said.
The three-day summit was on the theme: “Sustainable financing for primary health care (PHC) towards attainment of universal health coverage in Ghana: Role of stakeholders.”
