Health sector must collaborate with other sectors - Professor Adanu

Professor Richard Adanu, a Consultant Obstetrician-Gynecologist at the School of Public Health, University of Ghana, has called for inter-sectoral collaboration in the health sector for improved service delivery.

He said that was necessary because agencies like the Ministry of Health (MOH) and Ghana Health Service (GHS) could not move health indicators in the desired direction alone.

Prof Adanu, who is also a Professor of Women’s Reproductive Health, was speaking at the 2020 Annual Performance Review of the Family Health Division of the GHS, in Accra on Tuesday.

He said agencies that were primarily tasked with health service delivery must work with other agencies that did not have the primary task to ensure the good health of the population.

“There are many privately owned enterprises which include health service delivery and other non-health service delivery institutions that government agencies need to work with to ensure that health targets are met.”

Prof Adanu further stressed the need for the health sector to have a clear plan on what it wanted to achieve, saying, “We need to be able to communicate this plan simply so that our important partners from the media can pass it on to the general public, a precise communication of our plan is also crucial when we meet with policymakers.”

Dr Patric Kuma- Aboagye, Director General of the GHS said the health sector needed to form and strengthened existing partnerships to mobilize the requisite technical and financial support to bring ongoing cost-effective interventions to scale in line with the principles of universal health coverage.

He said the quest to promote maternal and child health and reduce maternal and child mortality remained a top priority for the Service.

The Director-General said GHS needed a transformational approach to health care delivery and would scale up strategies to ensure that surviving children thrived and transformed to improve the fortunes of the country.

The theme for this year’s performance review is, ’Building an integrated sustainable RMNCAH&N health delivery system in Ghana: The role of partnerships.’

Dr Kofi Issa, Director of Family Health Division, GHS, said in 2020, factors leading to morbidities and mortalities among women and children, changed slightly due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said to deliver efficiently amidst the pandemic, the Division in 2020 developed and disseminated the “Maternal, Child Health, and Nutrition Service Delivery Guidelines.”

Dr Issah said last year, the Division revived its healthy ageing department, which would be made functional in the second quarter of this year.

He said after 15 years of supporting NGOs in the area of comprehensive abortion care, a donor from the United States of America had directed its support to the GHS to strengthen the integration of Safe Abortion Services into Routine Reproductive Health Services in Ghana from now till October 2023.

He said in 2020 the Division performed 10 Obstetric fistula repairs at Mankessim, seven at Bolga Regional hospital and seven at Bole.

Dr Issah said the priorities for the obstetric fistula programme for 2021 were to intensify the search for obstetric fistula cases in communities and to continue to strengthen institutional capacity for the performance of obstetric fistula surgeries.