The Minister of Health, Mr. Kweku Agyeman Manu has pointed out that the quest to achieve universal health coverage (UHC) can only be driven by research into health delivery, quality healthcare and access.
Speaking at the opening of a one-day conference which was under the theme, “Facing the facts for UHC, can research drive policy from innovation in health financing and delivery in Ghana;” Mr. Agyeman averred that policymakers, healthcare providers and academics in the health sector should utilize research data to formulate and implement effective healthcare policies to help fast-track the country’s attainment of universal health coverage.
According to Mr. Agyeman Manu, the government remained committed to ensuring universal health coverage for 80 percent of the country’s population by the year 2030.
“The overall UHC goal for Ghana is to at least attain 80 percent of Ghanaians have access to essential health services by the year 2030.”
Mr. Kweku Agyeman Manu
The government, he said, has developed a comprehensive UHC roadmap towards making this a possibility.
Other speakers took turns to stress the need for bringing the research, policy formulation, innovation, and finance delivery gaps in health care delivery in the country.
In attendance were officials from the Ministry of Health, the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), the Norwegian and Netherlands embassies, and pharmaceutical companies among others.
The Conference explored ways of leveraging technology to improve health care delivery across Africa.
As stated by World Bank, the Universal health coverage is about ensuring that people have access to the health care they need without suffering financial hardship.
Data from PharmAccess Foundation however shows that 43% of the African population still lacks access to basic health care, while about 11 million people are driven into poverty every year due to spending household income to access basic health care.
Research In Health To Ensure Proximity To All
Speaking via a video conferencing, the Director of Research at PharmAccess Foundation Professor Global Health, University of Amsterdam, Prof. Tobias Rinke de Wit emphasized the need for factoring independent research findings into innovative ways of making healthcare accessible to all, especially those in remote communities.
“PharmAccess Foundation is building capacity for young researchers across Africa to help inform and guide policy formulation in innovative healthcare financing.”
Prof. Tobias Rinke de Wit
Speaking to the media on the sidelines, the Chief Executive Officer of the National Health Insurance Authority, Dr. Okoe Boye noted that outcomes of the symposium will help the NHIA in formulating effective policies to expand its current coverage rate from 50 percent to 70 percent.
“Ninety-five percent of diseases in the country are covered by the National Health Insurance Scheme. But beyond the ninety-five percent, fifty percent of Ghana’s population is actively benefiting from the NHIS.
“However, we are working to raise that figure to about seventy-five percent by the close of the year, so the outcome of this symposium would come in handy in that regard.”
Dr. Okoe Boye
On her part, the operations manager for PharmAccess Foundation Dr. Gifty Sonkwa-Mills expressed believe that effective implementation of research findings would go a long way to fast-track the attainment of the Universal Health Coverage across the continent.
“The objective of this symposium is to ensure that research policies are implemented to the latter to benefit the average person in Ghana.”
Dr. Gifty Sonkwa-Mills
PharmAccess, as explained by Dr. Sonkwa-Mills focuses on the root causes that hamper healthcare financing and investments toward equitable and quality healthcare in sub-Saharan Africa.
“We are working as an innovator and catalyst for pragmatic solutions that can be adopted, adapted, and scaled by partners.”
Dr. Gifty Sonkwa-Mills
Dr. Gifty Sonkwa-Mills averred that PharmAccess integrated approach addresses both the demand and supply side of the health care system, and uses the opportunities that mobile technology and data provide to leapfrog development in health markets in sub-Saharan Africa.
According to her, through public-private partnerships, PharmAccess focuses on; promoting basic health insurance plans and other innovative demand-side financing options to protect people from financial hardship; introducing quality standards and improvement methodologies for health care providers to increase transparency and stimulate efficiencies; facilitating and stimulating loans, business support, and investments for private health care providers, and innovating value-based health care solutions and financing, using data to empower health care consumers, patients, doctors and financiers alike.
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