Ghana surpasses its goal of nurse relative to population – WHO



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Ghana has surpbaded the nurse-to-population ratio recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), which is one nurse per 1,000 population, or a nurse ratio for 839 people.

This significant improvement is also visible in the country's doctor / patient ratio, which currently stands at one doctor for just over 7,000 inhabitants.

Health Minister, Kwaku Agyeman Manu, said at the opening ceremony of the Accra Health Summit in 2019 that these figures were the result of activities being carried out to fill the gap in health care. equity in the health sector for decades.

"We have been able to maintain our performance in child immunization and our coverage in postnatal services is starting to show an upward trend. Survey results and institutional sources show a significant improvement in mother and child indicators, "he said.

Mr. Agyeman-Manu said, however, that the health sector has not worked as expected in some regions.

"The targets for many of our service indicators have not been met. The number of mothers who exclusively badfeed their babies is decreasing.

The number of hospital beds is low and the average length of stay in emergency services is too high. Antibiotic prescriptions in our facilities are relatively high, while the reimbursement of suppliers for services rendered by NHIA is taking longer than expected, "he added.

Mr. Agyeman-Manu noted that the mixed performance was due to a number of challenges, for which a multi-stakeholder approach and strong leadership at all levels is essential.

"Government alone does not have the resources or the skills to undertake all the health initiatives needed so that we can quickly improve the health services outcome we all aspire to," he said.

He further indicated that some areas, such as data capture and collaboration with stakeholders, would be improved to consolidate the sector's achievements.

The Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, who raised the theme: "Ghana's Movement for Universal Health Coverage", called for a closer and stronger relationship between the two departments, the work of the other two.

"The Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture have complementary roles in improving the health of our people and should work together," he said. .

According to him, one of the key actions to develop a road map for universal health coverage is strengthening the sector's capacity to cope with epidemics and scaling up nutrition efforts.

"In the field of zoonoses, the two ministries will have to work together to avoid public health disasters," he said.

He said his ministry was ready to actively participate in the development of the ministry's roadmap for universal health coverage.

"My ministry would like to be fully involved in this plan, which the Ministry of Health is working out at the operational level to achieve universal health coverage," he said.

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