GHS begins pilot project on CHPS system

THE Ghana Health Service (GHS) has begun a pilot project in two urban settlements to test the feasibility of the Community-Based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) system in underdeveloped urban communities in Ghana.
The project is taking place at U-Compund in the Tema Municipality and Glefe in the Accra metropolis.
The CHPS concept was introduced by the GHS in 2000 to deliver close-to-client health services to local communities in Ghana as a way of improving their health conditions.
The decision to pilot the CHPS concept, which was originally designed to benefit the rural folks in some urban settings, was taken after a study had revealed that inequalities arising from unemployment, improper housing and low family incomes, predisposed the urban poor to health conditions which needed intervention.
The study was undertaken by the Ghana Health Service (GHS) in collaboration with some local organisations — Quality Health Partners (QHP), Community-Based Health Planning and Services Technical Assistance Project (CHPS-TA) and Ghana Sustainable Change Project (GSCP).
The objective of the project, which took place in 37 districts in seven southern regions from June 2004 to August 2009, was to help reduce maternal and under five mortality, as well as fertility rate.
Presenting a paper at an end of projects dissemination meeting held in Accra, a Programmes Director (Chief of Party) of CHPS-TA, Dr Kobina Atta Bainson, said lessons learnt from these pilots would guide efforts to bring CHPS to scale in urban setting in Ghana.
“Although CHPS was originally designed to improve access to health care in rural communities, little is known about its implementation in an urban context,” he explained.
He noted that some of the poor health conditions which people in those poor urban settlements faced were reproductive and child health, increase in communicable and non-communicable diseases, as well as rise in morbidity and mortality.
He pointed out that Ghana was urbanising steadily, with urban and rural population growth rates at four per cent and two per cent respectively.
Dr Bainson said urban access priority health services, especially in under-served poor urban areas, were of particular concern to the health sector, hence the need for some measures to change the trend.
For his part, a Chief of Party from Quality Health Partners (QHP), Dr Richard E. Killian, said his organisation had supported Ghana in diverse ways, especially in the area of healthcare delivery.
Some of the areas he mentioned were strengthening institutional capacity of the GHS to provide high quality health services using approved standards and guidelines; improved systems for human resource capacity development, as well as improved supervision, monitoring, problem identification and problem solving.
Dr Killian also talked about QHP’s support in communication skills, raising standard of quality in both private and public health facilities and development of a franchising approach, among others.
The chairman for the programme, who is also the Director-General of the GHS, Dr Elias Sory, commended the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which supported the implementation of the project, for its assistance to the health sector over the years.
He also expressed gratitude to the country’s health professionals for doing so well in the fight against diseases.