The 2023 Annual Health Summit was opened on Monday in Accra, Ghana, with a call for strategic funding for the health sector.
The call was made by Mr. Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, Minister of Health, who stated that adequate funding for the health sector would guarantee a better, responsive, and resilient health system.
The theme of the three-day summit is “Sustainable Financing for Primary Health Care (PHC) towards Attaining Universal Health Coverage in Ghana; the Role of Stakeholders.”
The summit brings together participants from Ministries and Departments, all health sector organisations, development partners, implementing partners, civil society, and non-governmental organisations to talk about specific steps Ghana can take to achieve sustainable financing for universal health coverage.
The summit is held annually to give stakeholders the chance to assess the sector’s performance in the previous year and reevaluate the importance of health for the upcoming work programme.
Mr. Agyeman-Manu claimed that the nation’s economic crisis would make 2022 very difficult.
Despite the difficulties, he claimed, the health sector’s interventions and associated outputs, outcomes, and impacts remained largely stable.
“The year saw a decline in the institutional maternal mortality ratio from 119.6 in 2021 to 102.6 in 2022, however, Ashanti, Greater Accra, and Eastern regions recorded high maternal mortality ratios. So, there is an urgent need to support these regions to address the possible contributory factors,” he said.
The Minister said institutional stillbirths, neonatal, infant, and under-five mortalities had also reduced marginally in 2022.
He said Family Planning acceptor rates also saw an increase from 33.8 percent in 2021 to 36.1 percent in 2022, adding that the Ahafo region recorded the highest Family Planning acceptor rates among the regions.
Mr Agyeman- Manu said all-cause mortality rates also declined from 21.73 percent to 19 percent in 2022.
“We must strengthen our collaboration with other MMDAs under the Health-In-All policies principle to mobilise resources to address issues hindering the delivery of PHC in line with our National Health Policy,” he said.
Mr Pierre Laporte, Country Director, Ghana World Bank, said though Ghana had made notable progress in building human capital during the period, some segments of the population were being left behind.
“Inequality in access to basic services among marginalised groups and across regions has impacted economic opportunities, unfortunately, this includes people with disabilities and those who suffer mental health issues.”
He said the health sector service delivery gap would require innovative sustainable financing of the primary healthcare system.
Mr Laporte said the challenges of the health sector were multi-dimensional and required effective collaboration with key stakeholders.
He congratulated the Health Ministry for securing a $ 150 million IDA and $ 31 million global financing facility grant for PHC reforms called the Network of Practice.
Mr Laporte said achieving the Sustainable Development Goals target for the country would require that development financing focused on results.
Mrs Uzoamaka Gilpin, the Development Partners (DP) Lead, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), commended the Ministry of Health and its agencies for the pragmatic effort at reforming PHC service delivery through the Network of Practice (NoP) and Model Health Centres (MHC).
“We call on the government to protect the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and prioritise sustainable domestic financing for procurement of health commodities and essential medicines, including vaccines,” she said.
Mr Bright Amissah-Nyarko, the National Chairman of Ghana Coalition of NGOs in Health, called on the Government to budget, allocate and disburse adequate funds to primary healthcare interventions.
“We suggest the imitation of high-level advocacy for the establishment of the National Emergency and Immunisation fund born out of the COVID-19 one percent recovery levy and the National COVID-19 trust,” he said.
