Gov’t to improve access to quality health care

President John Dramani Mahama, on Thursday gave the assurance that his government in the next four years would work towards improving access and enhanced working conditions across the various professions in the health sector.

He said the relevance of improved health services could not be overemphasized. "It augments investment in education because sick instructors will not teach well and sick students will not learn well."

Delivering the State of the Nation's Address on the floor of Parliament, President Mahama said government in furtherance of its plan would construct an ultra-modern, 600-bed Teaching Hospital for the University of Ghana.

President Mahama said presently the country's healthcare system still had personnel deficits and service deficiencies despite the human capacity development programmes being implemented.

He said the establishment of Regional hospitals in the Eastern and Upper East Regions, would commence, as well as the continuation of work on the Regional hospital project in Wa in the Upper West Region.

He noted that the Central and Volta regional hospitals would also be upgraded into teaching hospitals to expand the scope for training medical doctors and other healthcare specialists.

President Mahama indicated that work would also commence on six District Hospitals at Dodowa, Abetifi, Fomena, Garu, Kumawu, and Sekondi, adding that refurbishment would also commence on the Takoradi European hospital.

Work on phase one of the Specialist Emergency Centre at Korle-Bu Teaching hospital would be initiated, as well as the establishment of an additional 1,600 CHIPS compounds across the country by the end of 2016.

The President added that government would also initiate the necessary processes towards the construction of Polyclinics, especially in the Districts as well as regions that currently lacked such health facilities.

“In embarking on this journey of expanding access, we will also begin to explore new modalities of public-private partnerships in Health investment, in a manner that brings new investment, expertise and technology into the health sector, providing citizens a variety of options of where they access their health services,” he added.

President Mahama noted that there was an ongoing review of the operations of the NHIS, and government’s goal was to ensure a more efficient, expanded and sustainable delivery.

He said government would also scale up the training of midwives and nurses and allied health workers to fill the gap created by ageing health professionals.

President Mahama noted Ghana had made significant progress towards achieving Universal Access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support services through the implementation of a National HIV & AIDS Strategic Plan.

“HIV prevalence has stabilized at 1.5 per cent with over 25 per cent decline in new infections among the youth. In 2011, Government committed GH¢150 Million to support the implementation of the five (5) year Plan. This was in addition to government’s support for prevention & treatment services”, he said.