The Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has reiterated government’s commitment to expanding access to health care for the benefit of Ghanaians.
Speaking at the opening of 50th Anniversary Celebrations aand Conference of the Medical and Dental Council in Accra on Monday, August 29, Dr. Bawumia said since assuming office in 2017, the NPP Government, has prioritised and invested in infrastructure and services, to expand access to health care, especially to remote parts of the country and vulnerable members of society.
“As a Government, we have taken a keen interest in improving upon
access to health care in Ghana for the benefit of our people across the country,” Dr. Bawumia said.
Apart from the construction and expansion of numerous physical infrastructure, the Vice President also highlighted policies and services the Government has respectively implemented and improved in the Health sector, which he noted, are enhancing healthcare delivery in the country.
“The National Ambulance Service is also fit for purpose now, with the delivery of One Constituency, One Ambulance,” said the Vice President.
“We have also seen the introduction of drones for the delivery of medical supplies and blood across the vast section of the country. We have six drone delivery centres in Ghana and we have two more to go, which will then cover the rest of the country. Currently, the six, each centre is delivering about 100 flights every day on average from each centre going to very remote areas of the country where they are dropping critical medicines and saving lives.
That has made Ghana, our country, the largest medical drone delivery country in the world,” Dr. Bawumia added.
“We are also embarking on the network for all hospitals and clinics and chips compound. That is ongoing and we expect to make a very significant improvement by the end of next year where we expect over 2000 hospitals and clinics to be fully networked so that we don’t have to carry folders from one hospital to another. Currently, the regional and teaching hospitals have been networked and we are expecting that once this is done, this is when tele medicine will take its full place in Ghana
“Government is also improving on the efficiency of the operations of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and this has allowed the NHIS to expand the scope of its services to include childhood cancers, thereby removing the lack of money as a critical barrier to lifesaving healthcare services.”
Underscoring Government’s commitment to a relentless approach to expanding access to healthcare across the country, Dr. Bawumia referred to the introduction of Agenda 111 project, under which the Government is building 101 district hospitals, 6 regional hospitals and 4 psychiatric hospitals in Ghana “to boost the provision of healthcare infrastructure and ease accessibility to healthcare services.”
While commending members of the Medical and Dental Council for their invaluable services to the country, he also expressed government’s concern over increasing rate of negligence and other unprofessional conducts by some members.
“Government is worried about the increasing numbers of complaints about allegations of clinical negligence, poor professional attitude and conduct, inhumane and degrading treatment of patients and some practitioners who provide services outside their areas of competency of their training,” Dr. Bawumia said.
“We are happy that the Council is defining clear boundaries so that the various categories of practitioners know the limits to their practice in the interest of patient safety and well-being.
“We commend the Council for being proactive in these matters. And I understand some Policy Documents on Specialist Register; Practitioners Stamp, Name Tag and Appropriate Professional Apparel, as well as, Scope of Practice for Physicians assistants were recently launched to address some of these issues of concern.”
The Vice President also expressed concerns about some health care professionals who abuse substances or work under the influence of substances including chronic alcoholism or suffer from infirmities of the mind.
“All these things may call into question their fitness for practise. Yet the experience from the Medical and Dental Council, Ghana, shows that some of these professionals had challenges during their undergraduate training and that early identification of impairment and intervention are associated with better outcomes.
“It is my belief that the conference will suggest solutions for effectively managing such practitioners not only within the health professions but the entire public sector where similar concerns exist,” Dr. Bawumia urged.