President John Dramani Mahama has urged health workers to deliver compassionate care regardless of personal circumstances, invoking the example of Florence Nightingale as he addressed staff at of Juapong Municipal Hospital, which doubled as a platform for the Free Primary Health Care Dubar.
Speaking to nurses and other health professionals at the event, the President argued that compassion is not a luxury reserved for good days at work, but a professional obligation health workers owe patients no matter what is happening in their personal lives..
He noted that many nursing oaths commit practitioners to give compassionate and competent care at all times, and pressed staff to set aside personal frustrations, whether a disagreement at home or a shortfall in household finances, once they arrive at work. Citing insights from psychiatry and psychology, the President argued that healing has as much to do with the mind as the body, suggesting that a patient who believes they will recover tends to heal faster.
“Compassion is at the heart of healthcare. No matter the challenges we face personally, every patient deserves kindness, dignity, and quality care because healing begins with hope.”
H. E. President John Damani Mahama
He said something as simple as a reassuring smile and a few encouraging words can trigger that belief in a patient, ultimately supporting their recovery.
He acknowledged that conditions at many facilities remain far from ideal, while noting that government is working to improve infrastructure across the country’s health system, and appealed to staff to extend compassionate care in the meantime, regardless of the environment they are working in.
Free Primary Health Care Designed to Reach Ghana’s Uninsured
Turning to the Free Primary Health Care programme, the President explained the policy’s origins, noting that even after the introduction of the National Health Insurance Scheme, around 12 million Ghanaians remained without insurance cards or access to healthcare.
He said achieving Universal Health Coverage, a global target for every country, required finding a way to bring that uninsured population into the system, and that most of them were found to be concentrated in rural areas.
That realisation, he said, led to the design of Free Primary Health Care as a programme targeted at rural populations who would ordinarily bypass major hospitals in favour of their local CHPS compounds. Under the policy, he said, services from polyclinics down to CHPS compounds are free for every Ghanaian, with no facility permitted to charge a single cedi to anyone who presents themselves for care.
The President also commended the Christian Health Association of Ghana for its endorsement of the programme, describing its leadership’s pledge of support as critical to the initiative’s success.
Screening Success in Central Region Illustrates Programme’s Value
To demonstrate the impact of early screening under the policy, the President recounted a visit to a newly opened CHPS compound in the Central Region, where the first patient attended to under Free Primary Health Care had her blood pressure checked as a routine first step.
The President said that without access to that screening, the woman might otherwise have sought help from a native doctor or a prayer camp, continued her normal activities unaware of the underlying problem, and risked a sudden stroke or cardiovascular incident.
He linked the episode to the broader dangers of untreated hypertension, noting that high blood pressure is a leading cause of kidney failure, since the kidney’s fine capillaries are especially vulnerable to blood circulating at elevated pressure.
The President’s account of the Central Region screening case is likely to feature prominently in ongoing efforts to encourage uptake of Free Primary Health Care, as government looks to translate early detection successes into a broader shift away from Ghana’s historically treatment-focused health system.
READ MORE: Ministry of Health Unveils 24,000 Medical Equipment for Health Facilities
