By
Julius K. Satsi/Jacqueline Appiagyei, GNA
Accra, Jan.21, GNA –
Dr Anthony Nsiah-Asare, the Special Advisor on health issues at the Presidency,
has urged stakeholders to see quality healthcare delivery as a shared
responsibility in which they must play an active role.
Dr Nsiah-Asare, who
is a Former Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), said there was
the need for collaboration towards achieving the universal health coverage to
attain a quality healthcare delivery for all citizenry.
He was speaking at
the 2020 edition of ‘Our Public Interest Conversation Series’ organised by the
Passionate Africa Leadership Institute (PALI) Ghana to discuss and suggest ways
of improving Ghana’s quality healthcare delivery.
He said the country
had only a decade to achieve the universal health coverage hence the need for
all stakeholders to get involved because the quality of healthcare is very
important.
“It doesn’t matter
the number of hospitals we build in the country …the number of doctors and
nurses we train, if the patients and their relatives don’t accept the care that
we are giving, it means it is of low quality,” Dr Nsiah-Asare said.
He said the patient,
relatives of patients, healthcare personnel, government, private healthcare
providers, and all actors are part of the process to building a quality
healthcare system in the country.
In a speech read on
his behalf, Mr Kwaku Agyemang Manu, the Minister for Health, said achieving
universal health coverage was the country’s topmost priority and the Ministry
was working towards its achievement.
He said the Ministry
had in effect, reviewed the national health policy, which inspired the
universal health coverage for the country to ensure that all people living in
Ghana had access to timely high quality health services irrespective of their
ability to pay at the point of use of service.
The Minister noted
that the Ministry was in the process of developing the basic minimum
requirement and ensuring adherence to level specific emergency services.
He said the Ministry
was also zoning and mapping the health provider – patient ratio to improve
access in quality health delivery across all sectors and would engage all
stakeholders in the mental health sector to increase awareness and advocacy.
Mr Frank Paa Kumi,
the Founding President of PALI-Ghana, said the discussion served as an
opportunity to create awareness on the National Healthcare Quality Strategy, a
document drafted to improve health care delivery, with a lifespan of 2017 to
2021.
He said there was
the need for the citizenry to be aware of what existed in the public healthcare
delivery chain to properly guide every patient on the operational processes in
accessing quality healthcare service.
Mr Kumi said
creating awareness on the National Quality Healthcare strategy would help the
citizenry to be abreast with the facilities they had to contact at every point
in time of the healthcare delivery value chain and system.
GNA