Incentive package for rural health workers ready by end 2021 – Dr. Asare
The government and stakeholders in the health sector are finalising incentives for health workers in underserved areas of the country.
By close of this year, the stakeholders including Associations and allied bodies would finalise the financial and accommodation packages.
Dr Anthony Nsiah Asare, Presidential Advisor on Health, disclosed this to the Ghana News Agency on the sidelines of an award ceremony for 14 New Patriotic Party (NPP) medical Team in Accra.
Each of the teams was presented with plaque and certificate of recognition to encourage and appreciate their work.
He noted that the country had been zoned using Ghana’s poverty statistics as the base for zoning and that financial packages would be distributed to the beneficiaries according their needs.
“So the package of persons working at for instance, Ridge Hospital in Accra will be different from those in Tamale Teaching Hospital and health centre in Pedietrokope, an island in the Eastern Region. The conditions in these areas are completely different and that will determine how much will be given to personnel in these areas,” he explained
Dr Nsiah Asare stated that already incentives on education and promotion were being implemented and that health workers working in the fringes communities received early promotion and allowed study leave after serving for fewer years.
He said working in the rural areas was good and exposed personnel to a myriad of real life situations, which made them more experienced.
“When you are posted anywhere to work, do not decline. I am a living testimony. Accepting to work in regions including the Northern, and Ashanti made me a better doctor,” he said.
He urged members of the NPP health Team not to rest on their oars but intensify the medical outreach to ensure that as many people especially those in the rural areas received health care.
Mr Douglas Adu Fokuo, National Coordinator of NPP Medical Group, said through the NPP Medical Team 97, regional branches conducted free health screening in 323 communities and screened 168,492 people in 188 constituencies.
He explained that the outreach, which was part of the campaign, saw rural people benefit from primary healthcare services including health education, hypertension screening, diabetes screening, eye screening and distribution of facemask and sanitizers.
Mr Adu Fokuo noted that the medical outreach project had been instituted as a yearly programme and would be expanded to cover all 275 constituencies.
The 14 Health Teams, under the NPP Medical Steering Committee was birthed in the year 2008 and had consistently offered medical outreach to many in rural areas.
Source: GNA