National Health Forum opens

Accra, Sept. 21, GNA - Professor Fred T. Sai, Presidential Advisor on HVI/AIDS and Population Issues, on Thursday expressed concern about the inability of the Health Sector to improve health care delivery. He said the health care delivery in Ghana had escalated but epidemiologically common ailments such as diarrhoea, measles, malaria and other communicable diseases were still claiming lives. Prof. Sia, who said this at the opening of a two-day National Health Forum to review the Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) adopted in 1997, said the inability of Ghanaians to change certain lifestyles had also contributed to this setback. The Forum, under the theme: "CHPS - The Evidence, Innovations, Challenges and Scaling up Strategies to Achieve the MDGs" would review the evidence of implementation and its impact as well as develop strategies and plans for its scaling up.

CHPS initiative is a national programme for reorienting and relocating primary heath care from sub-district health centres to convenient community locations. It also helps to reduce health inequalities and promote equity of health outcome by removing geographic barriers to health care.


Prof. Sai urged the Sector to provide health facilities for the CHPS programme. "Stop building sophisticated hospitals. It will be sad to hear that surgery could not materialize because an obstetric instrument was not available.'


Prof. Sai launched the CHPS Website and Newsletter. The Website: www.ghanachps.org would provide information on the CHPS programme and services and training programmes offered. It will also be used as channel of communication between Ghanaians and international health organisations.


Mr Samuel Owusu-Agyei, a Deputy Minster of Health, said the implementation of CHPS had demonstrated abundant health benefits and improved health conditions of people in the communities where they operated.

He said CHPS had helped in the reduction of financial, geographical and social barriers that communities faced. "It has enabled communities to develop and participate in system care, which are efficient, affordable and responsive to their health needs.=94 He said health promotion through the establishment of three preventive and regenerative health and nutrition programmes in the three ecological zones of the country would contribute to improved health status of Ghanaians.


Ms Esther Offei-Aboagye, Director of the Institute of Local Government Studies, called for more inter-sectoral collaboration in a multi-dimensional undertaking such as health delivery.


She appealed for team work between health providers and local authorities at distract level adding "the two parties should work together in their mutual undertaking to ensure the health and wellbeing of the local people".


Dr Frank Nyonator of the Policy, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Division of the Ministry of Health expressed the hope that the participants would build consensus at the end of the Forum on the role of Government, GHS and Ministry of Health as well as other health partners in the implementation and scaling up of CHPS.