Stakeholders advocate for investment in health research

Accra, Jan. 31, GNA - Professor Agyeman Badu Akosa on Wednesday said research in health delivery was vital, hence, the need to invest in it. He explained that to ensure that quality health care was provided to the people of Ghana, research information should be provided to help the health sector to achieve its goals.

Prof. Akosa said this at a day's stakeholders meeting on Health Research and Development in Accra.

Speaking on; "The Role of Research in Health Policy and Programme", Prof. Akosa noted that it was necessary for the health sector to set aside some proportion of its annual budget to fund research.

He commended Health Ministers in Africa, who met in Abuja, Nigeria and Ghana on 2006 for agreeing that the Health Sectors should set aside two per cent of their budgets to fund research and said: "The Ghana Health Service will also set aside five per cent of its budget to fund research."

He said it was unfortunate that research findings made so far were not being used to inform service administration, technical practice of care and financial decisions.

He called for a mechanism to be put in place for the examination and adoption of the project's research findings for policy development. A study conducted by Dr Cynthia Bannerman and Nana Enyimayew of the Ministry of Health identified gaps that needed to be addressed. Nana Enyimayew giving the findings of the study said a systematic review on the use of evidence by policy makers concluded that respondents considered direct interaction with researchers to be the most influential facilitator of research uptake for policy. Lepowura Alhaji M.N. Jawula, Chief Director of the Ministry of Health, who chaired the meeting, said he would ensure that the two per cent of the annual budget was set aside to fund research to provide quality health care for Ghanaians.