Revised Nat’l Health Policy will guarantee good healthcare -Akufo-Addo

The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has assured that the revised National Health Policy will guarantee Ghanaians a good healthcare. The President said the National Health Policy had been developed with the vision of attaining the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) – Roadmap 2020-2030.

President Akufo-Addo said this on Monday when he launched the revised National Health Policy in Accra. He explained that the definition associated nationally to the UHC meant that “all people in Ghana to have timely access to high-quality health services, irrespective of one’s ability at the point-of-use.”

With that definition, he added that every Ghanaian would have access to quality healthcare services. With this, the President indicated further that money would not be a barrier and with the National Health Insurance Scheme making sure of that.

The President noted that ensuring access to health services would not be limited to geographical convenience but also timely access to health services, especially in emergency care.

According to the President, lessons from the coronavirus pandemic indicate that crisis in health could bring all other aspects of national life to a halt.

Titled: “Ensuring Healthy Lives for All,” the revised health policy is contained in a 28-page book that details five policy objectives, including, strengthening the healthcare delivery system to become resilient and encouraging the adoption of healthy lifestyles.

President Akufo-Addo acknowledged that the exiting health architecture was not designed to provide comprehensive services, but rather was focused on sickness care, including the management of infectious diseases and maternal and child health conditions.

That, he explained, was because those diseases were the predominant conditions at the time of the establishment of Ghana’s healthcare system before and after achieving independence.

He said the COVID-19 had offered the country an opportunity to take a second look at its healthcare system and the need for a revised health policy to cover key determinants of health and not just primary health care.

He explained that the adoption of the new policy was aligned to the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Agenda 2030, which seeks to build a world that is “just, equitable and all embracing, with the desired end result being inclusive economic growth, social development and environmental protection for all without discrimination”.

President Akufo-Addo said the policy also derived inspiration from the Directive Principles of State Policy, as enshrined in the 1992 Constitution, which required the state to guarantee the right to good health care for people living in Ghana, irrespective of colour, race, geographical location, religion or political affiliation.

The Minister of Health, Mr Kwaku Agyemang-Manu giving his remarks urged stakeholders and health professionals to work diligently to ensure that the policy was implemented successfully and addressed the collective and broad national health goals.

The Minister was confident that it would form the basis for providing best possible preventive, curative, rehabilitative and palliative health services in the country through an integrated multi-sectoral approach that stimulated national development.

Giving an overview of the policy, the Director of Policy Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation at the Ministry of Health, Dr Emmanuel Ankrah Odame, said it was arrived at after wide consultations with stakeholders from all sectors of the country, including development partners.

In addition, he said, the policy was assessed by independent experts before it was agreed upon.

He said the objectives were to ensure that the public became resilient, led healthy lifestyles and preventative living, while ensuring that environmental pollution, ranging from noise in the environment and others, was minimised to secure healthy living for the people.

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