Health summit underway - To strategise for future (Health Page)

Stakeholders in the health sector are attending a five-day summit to map the way forward and renew their commitment towards improving the country’s health care delivery.
With the theme; “Going beyond strategy to action”, the health summit, which is a bi-annual event within the health sector, will provide the Ministry of Health (MoH), its agencies, development partners, civil society and other stakeholders the opportunity to dialogue, reflect on their performance and strategise for the future.
Opening the summit, the Minister of Health designate, Dr Benjamin Kunbuor, said the Mental Health Services and the National Ambulance Services are to benefit from a financial package from the government to support their activities.
Out of the package, the Mental Health Services will receive GH¢1.3 million while the National Ambulance Service will be a beneficiary of GH¢ 3.3 million to scale up their operations.
To expand the Community Based Health Planning and Services Programme (CHPS), there is also an initial allocation of GH¢ 3.4 million under the HIPC Fund, the Government of Ghana and sector budgetary support.
Dr Benjamin Kunbuor expressed the hope that funds for the CHPS programme would go a long way in providing basic equipment to ensure more functional CHPS zones in deprived areas across the country.
He said since the government assumed office in January, this year, the summit had been the first major plan initiated within the health sector and was optimistic that the outcome of the summit would accelerate the implementation of the health programmes in the health sector.
Touching on some of the government’s promises, the minister mentioned the introduction of a one-time premium payment scheme under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), adding that the pledge was borne out of the need to ensure universal access to basic healthcare by all.
Dr Kunbuor, however, pointed out that the government intended to initiate a strategic and continued dialogue on the subject when all the required information was gathered to enable the health partners make inputs in the implementation.
Speaking on behalf of the development partners, the Danish Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Stig Barlyng, said “Ghana is a champion in health, just as in soccer”.
He explained that the government spent more on health than other developing countries did, adding that the country was committed to reaching the Abuja target of 15 per cent GDP spent on health.
Mr Barlyng, however, pointed out that the results achieved in the health sector did not fully match the investment made and that some areas were still underserved, resulting in many maternal deaths and too many children dying or suffering from malnutrition.
In his welcoming address, the acting Chief Director of the MoH, Mr Samuel Boateng, said the theme for the event summed up the vision and disposition of the current leadership of the health sector whose focus was achieving results within the resource constraints.
The chairman for the function, Alhaji Dr Mustapha Ahmed, who is also the Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health, expressed the hope that the participants would come out with recommendations to help promote health care delivery in the years ahead.