RE: Huge increase in hospital beds under NPP

The recently report on Ghanaweb from NPPNews (Ghanaweb, 11 Mar 08) titled, “Huge increase in hospital beds under NPP,” was interesting reading.

The NPPNews piece started off bemoaning/boasting about the quality of health care and the medical brain drain, before/after the NPP administration. The report immediately changed gears from first to 4th, throwing numbers all around about the “Huge increase in hospital beds under the NPP.” At the end, NPPNews wanted us to believe that the report provided “A critical analysis…(that)… vividly demonstrates how this government has worked tirelessly and assidiously to improve, not only the quality of life through better pay for medical workers and facilities to enable them give of their best, but also improved the socio-economic welfare of this nation.” Quality? I daresay that the piece was not any where near any “critical analysis” of anything, not even “hospital beds.”

In the first place, seems to Prof Lungu that the NPPNews propagandist forgot that it is almost the end of the first quarter of 2008. Why did they omit “hospital beds” data from 2006, 2007, and yes, 2008? Is it so hard for NPPNews, representing the current government, to get that data and show the people? Or is NPPNews a victim of access to information and information flow? Consider that this is the same government that is pussyfooting the Ghana Freedom of Information Bill? Or is it because the number of hospital beds in Ghana has not changed appreciably for the better since 2005 even though the price of gold has been going up since 2001, and now hovers over $1000 an ounce. I leave that up to the reader.

Going forward, the NPPNews piece did not bother to tell us how many of the hospital beds were funded by the public, versus how many were privately funded. That would have been useful information as far as the public goes. My data shows that there are approx 164 hospitals in the Regions. The other question would be how many of those 164 hospitals were initiated or constructed by what regime (CPP, NDC, NPP, etc.). I am going this way because NPPNews loves to compare the record to the NDC record. My question is, what about the CPP record? Critical analysis, really?

CRITICAL DATA ANALYSIS, NOT!: Going back to the data on hospital beds in Ghana since 2000, the other item of interest has to do with the competency of the persons who produced the entire NPPNews report. Are these people competent or are they just “throwers of sand in me eyes”? Don’t they know that it is lousy science and “analysis” to throw out numbers without weighing them by appropriate criteria (such as number in the population in their 1000s)? Is NPPNews serious, just an illiterate propaganda mouthpiece, or what?

ITEM: If NPPNews had taken time to weigh the number of beds in the country, they would have discovered that their numbers actually do not represent a “huge increase” because frankly, while we were counting, the population had grown. Normalizing the data by 1000 persons in the population would have been the smarter way to discuss the number of hospital beds in any country, including Ghana.

According to the NPPNews data, the increase in beds from 2000 to 2005 represents a 49% increase for the country, about 1.24 beds per 1000 people in 2001. The reader will observe that globally, there are approx 3.0 hospital beds per 1000 on the average, from a high 18.3 beds for Switzerland, 3.6 for the US, and 1.1 for Mexico.

But here is the kicker. When we factor in per capital total expenditure for health care (another more intelligent measure of commitment to health care planning, administration, and services), we get $5,270 for the USA, $4,258 for Switzerland, $550 for Mexico, and $73 for Ghana. Incidentally, my data shows that Togo in the immediate past spent about $163, Cote d’Ivoire spent about $107, and Uganda spent approx. $77 per capita, per annum.

Here is the Prof Lungu service especially for you!

THE NPP MODEL RESULTS:

Here are the results using data on the number of “hospital beds” from 2000 provided by NPPNews. We of course disregard the quality of hospital care in any region of the country or particular hospital given that NPPNews did not provide any insight in those respects. Using the NPPNews data and the total of 14,653 “hospital beds”, we find that Greater Accra, Eastern, Ashanti, and Volta Regions are at the top, with Brong Ahafo, Northern, Upper East, and Upper West Regions at the bottom:

Absolute Number of Hospital Beds: Accra - 2517; Eastern – 2214; Ash – 2054; Volta – 2050; Central – 1380; Western – 1308; BA – 1077; Northern – 790; Upper East – 642; Upper West – 621.

THE WORLD STANDARD MODEL REPORT: However, if we use the number of hospital beds in the regions weighted by the size of the population in the 1000s, this approach being the more professional and analytical measure, we get different and rather interesting results. Again, we disregard the quality of service in any region of the country or in any particular hospital in any town. We find that Northern, Ashanti, Brong Ahafo, Western Regions are at the top, with Accra, Eastern, Upper West, and Volta Regions at the bottom.

Number of Hospital Bed Per 1000: Northern - 2.30; Ash - 1.76; BA - 1.69; Western - 1.47; Upper East - 1.43; Central - 1.15; Accra - 1.15; Eastern - 0.95; Upper West - 0.93; Volta - 0.80.

SO WHAT PROF LUNGU?:

Your guess is as good as Prof Lungu’s.

But it ought to tell the current Minister of Health or the in-coming Minister of Health where attention might be useful, assuming the person is Ghana-centered, and assuming the person believes that every Ghanaian citizen requires the same good quality medical care as is available in the best managed hospital system in Ghana, wherever it is, regardless of the number of beds in that hospital.

Now, Prof Lungu is not talking about health care or child birth in New York, London, Brussels, Houston, Tokyo, or Pretoria.

Prof Lungu
Tokyo, Japan
Email: professor.lungu@yahoo.com