Campaigners call for provision of quality healthcare

The Universal Access to Healthcare Campaign Platform has presented a communiqué to the Ministry of Health (MoH), asking government for timely release of funds to ensure the promotion of quality health care delivery.

The Campaigners have also called on government to increase financial commitment to the healthcare sector with sufficient legislative focus on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 4 and 5.

“The Health Ministry should liaise with Ministry of Finance…to ensure the timely release of all funds for the sector to prevent life-threatening strikes undertaken by health professionals.”

The Platform which is made up of a coalition of NGOs promoting Health care delivery, asked President John Dramani Mahama to tell the public how much funds have accrued from the 10 per cent contribution of himself and his Cabinet Ministers promised to be donated monthly towards the provision of the CHPS compound project.

The Campaigners led by Mr Abdulai Braimah, member of the Platform undertook a route march from the Kwame Nkrumah Circle to the Arts Centre in Accra where they presented the 12-point communiqué to Mr Tony Goodman, Public Relations Officer of MoH who received it on behalf of the Health Minister, Dr Kwaku Agyemang-Mensah.

Mr Braimah said the MDGs presented Ghana with opportunities for greater equity, prosperity and fulfillment in universal access to primary healthcare and maternal and newborn survival.

However after 14 years of implementing strategies, Ghana still lag behind in the three health goals, which are MDG 4, 5 and 6 on reducing Child Mortality, improving Maternal Health and combating HIV and AIDS infections, Malaria and other diseases.

He said factors such as inadequate political will, lack of reliable and consistent baseline data, huge funding gaps, weak human capacity, poor coordination among tiers of government, and overlapping mandates between agencies on particular goals have been identified as the bottlenecks posing challenges to achieving the goals.

He said as the world marks the 500th day to the end of the MDGs, the government has a responsibility to ensure that the days ahead yield immense results.

“It has become even more critical to strengthen Ghana’s health system, which has clearly been exposed by the rise in institutional maternal mortality cases recorded in 2013 and the recent Cholera outbreak in many parts of the country.”

The Campaigners says to successfully make a positive impact towards the MDGs, it is essential that critical but realistic steps are taken to make certain that the health system guarantees survival of all who need healthcare in Ghana.

The Universal Access to Healthcare Campaign called on the MOH, Ghana Health Service to, as a matter of urgency, prioritise the health sector in the political discourse to improve accessibility to primary healthcare, maternal and newborn health services.

The Coalition called on Government to reinforce structures of the National Health Insurance Scheme to ensure that many more have-nots could access health services, while every Ghanaian could access healthcare without necessarily paying at the point of use.

Members also called for support for civil society organisations to monitor and hold state institutions accountable for delivering health services and strengthening communities’ capacities to deliver healthcare services.

The Health Ministry should also liaise with the Ministry of Transport to substantially invest in regional/district transportation and power networks to increase access to primary healthcare through growth.

The coalition includes the MamaYe Advocacy Coalition, Alliance for Reproductive Health Rights, Evidence for Action, Ghana, Ghana Association for Women's Welfare, SEND GHANA, National Association of People Living With HIV – Ghana and Rural-Urban Women And Children Development Agency.

Mr Goodman said the Ministry would understudy the communiqué and take appropriate measures towards the improvement of health care services saying, “government is very much committed to health care delivery in the country”.