MOH holds Health Summit

Accra, Nov. 16, GNA - Dr Benjamin Kumbuor, Deputy Minister of Health, on Monday said the continuous inequalities and inequities in access to health services had resulted in large disparities in health outcomes across the country.

He also complained about the numerous fragmentations of the health sector, saying this impeded the swift implementation of government policies and programmes and prevented the required health outcomes of ensuring basic primary health care for all.

Dr Kumbuor who was addressing the MOH's Health Summit with its development partners on the theme: "Going Beyond Strategy to Action," said this challenge called for swift action that would help the health sector to deliver its obligation and help make the quick jumps needed to meet the Millennium Development Goals.

He said to speed up efforts, various investment programmes had been earmarked for the sector, which were intended to help make clear and measurable progress in critical areas of the health sector.

Dr Kunbuor said these investments included budgetary allocations for areas such as improving reproductive and child health and nutrition, step up disease control, mental health services, scale up national ambulance service, expand Community-Based Health Planning and Services Programme and equipping and modernisation of secondary and tertiary facilities.

The Minister explained that the summit would therefore afford the Ministry and its partners as well as stakeholders the platform and the opportunity to dialogue, reflect on performance.

The participants would also map out the way forward for the 2010 Programme of Work and Sector Medium Term Development and also renew their commitment towards the people of Ghana.

Dr Kumbuor said government was worried about the high rate of maternal mortality in the country, which currently stood at 451 per 100,000 live births, even though the Demographic and Health Survey had also indicated a remarkable reduction in infant and child mortality rates.

He said the high rate of maternal mortality was unacceptable as the known causes were highly preventable, citing the high rate of abortion resulting from the unmet needs of women as far as family planning was concerned and lack of access to basic primary health care services in deprived communities.

Dr Kunbuor said government intended to introduce a one-time premium payment scheme under the National Health Insurance Scheme, which was expected to take off during the latter part of 2010.

He said it would ensure universal and unimpeded access to basic health care by all, adding that government was fully aware of the challenges inherent in the Scheme.

"We intend to initiate a strategic and continuous dialogue on the subject when all the information required is gathered to enable our health partners to make inputs in the implementation.

However, the Ministry of Health believes that there is an urgent need for a review of the modus operandi of the scheme in order to make it more efficient," he said.

Mr Stig Barlyng, Royal Danish Ambassador in Ghana, who represented MOH development partners, raised concern about the high government allocations to service wage bills of the health sector, but expressed appreciation of the openness of the ministry to its development partners through the instituted health summit for the past 12 years.

Mr Barlyng called for the strengthening of public management systems and the need to appreciate and support mental health and improve community-based psychiatric care to prevent stigma and promote quality care of patients.

He also called for the removal of unnecessary bureaucratic administrators whose work impeded the speedy implementation of policies and programmes at the implementation level and establish inter-agency leadership committees to address the issue of fragmentation within the health sector.

He called for practicality in designing manuals for the training of community health workers and urged development partners to pull together all resources, while strengthening collaboration with the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning to ensure improved budgetary allocation.