Health Ministry to focus more on providing health care to rural communities
The Ministry of Health will this year give more attention to providing quality health care services to people in the rural communities to ensure universal access to health for all.
It will also expand the service base of the Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS), which seeks to provide community-based health services through partnerships with the health delivery partners, community leaders, and social groups.
Mr Joseph Yieleh Chireh, Minister of Health, announced these when the US Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Donald Jene Teitelbanum, paid a courtesy call on him in Accra on Wednesday.
The Minister said the current approach would provide accessible primary health care to Ghanaian communities, which are hard to reach areas.
This according to Mr Chireh would help Government to achieve the Millennium Development Goals 4 (reducing child mortality) and 5 (reducing maternal mortality).
He said the Ministry would also be refurbishing and equipping teaching hospitals, districts, as well as referral centres, to ease the pressure on the major hospitals in the regions and districts.
Mr Chireh expressed concern about the high increase in non communicable diseases, which had to do with people lifestyles, adding that the Ministry would embark on a healthy lifestyle campaign to educate people on the need to adopt a healthy lifestyle.
“A healthy nation is a wealthy nation and we need to learn to live healthy so we can contribute our quota to the development of our nation and increase our productivity”, he added.
He said the Ministry was collaborating with the Centre for Disease Control in the United States to equip and improve Ghana’s laboratories for early detection and treatment of diseases.
Mr Teitelbaum commended Ghana for the strides made in reducing child mortality, but expressed worry about the high rate of maternal mortality.
He called for the building of strong infrastructure to address health issues related to peoples’ lifestyles.
Mr Teitelbaum expressed concern about the recent outbreak of cholera, which had claimed some lives and called for inter sectoral approach to address that.
He said cholera also had to do with the environment and sanitation as well as provision and access to portable water.
Source: GNA