Gov’t urged to fulfill promise regarding the health sector

Mr Hubert Charles, National Director, World Vision (WV) Ghana, on Tuesday called on government to fulfill its promise of spending 15 per cent of the national budget on health in line with the Abuja Declaration.

He said currently, government expenditure on health is 12 per cent of total expenditure, which amounts to $325 million, whiles out-of –pocket expenditure on health is 27 percent of the total health expenditure.

Mr Charles was speaking at a media encounter in Accra to announce “Child Health Now” (CHN) campaign as part of WV Global Week of Action.

WV Ghana is also taking part in activities to mark the Global Week of Action to raise awareness on the need to reduce the death of children under five as well as mothers.

Mr Charles said the state must improve the quality and access of health services with particular focus on the poor and marginalized communities.

He said the nation must also fast track the passage into law and implement of the new National Health Insurance Authority bill, which provided for the extension of health services to all children under the age of 18 years.

Mr Charles said the country must address the human resource gaps in rural health facilities, including improving incentive packages to attract personnel.

He said there was the need to ensure equitable access to health services on the agenda of District Health Management Teams.

He called for prioritization of proven interventions to improve nutrition in the national health and development agenda, and make them available to all children and mothers, particularly the most vulnerable.

Mr Charles also charged the government to increase funding and ensure rational use of funding for essential drugs, promote local production of essential drugs and improve coordination of procurement to prevent ‘stock out’.

He called for the full implementation of the child health policy on effective prevention and treatment of pneumonia, diarrhea and malaria by using antibiotics that could be administered at community level.

Mr Charles said the nation must increase the capacity of communities to take first line critical actions to promote and protect the health of children, women and most vulnerable.

Mr Charles said: "these programmes can be achieved with the expansion of education for families and communities on good nutrition and health practices to improve their health-seeking behavior".

He said the empowerment of families and communities to demand quality and effective health service was very important to achieving excellence health delivery.

Mr Raymond Owusu, Nutritionist Programme Specialist of WV Ghana, who made a presentation on the CHN campaign, said the move aimed to contribute significantly to the reduction in child and maternal mortality rates, by pressing the government to focus more on family and community health in line with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

He said WV views health as a development issue and through the CHN campaign "is calling for concrete action to address ineffective health systems that are not able to respond to the needs of mothers and children.’’

He said for the government to ensure equitable access to quality health services to effectively address maternal, newborn and child health, there should be a long term predictable funding for these programmes.

Mr Owusu also called for increased investment to strengthen the health systems in an equitable way.

This he said will ensure that the poor and marginalized children and their mothers and communities have access to quality essential care when and where they needed it.

Mr Owusu said donors must support national strategies and strengthen existing national systems and structures to build capacity and ensure the sustainability of support over the long term.