By Iddi Yire/Jennifer Ansu, GNA
Accra, Nov. 1, GNA - The Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC) has called on Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to monitor the construction of the 250 Community-Based Health Planning and Services (CHPS); to ensure that they were duly executed by the Government.
The ISODEC’s Budget Analysis Report 2018 said government needed to ensure that health facilities and personnel were evenly distributed across the nation for a better health care for all.
It said the health sector must be adequately funded to work towards the reduction of infant and maternal mortalities in the country.
The Budget Analysis Report 2018 report was unveiled on Thursday by Mr Bishop Akolgo, Project Consultant, ISODEC, at a dissemination workshop in Accra.
The workshop on human development index, a project funded by the Ford Foundation, was attended by stakeholders from the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Sanitation and Waters Resources, the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education and civil society organisations.
Mr Akolgo urged the government to ensure that medical specialists were available throughout all major hospitals across the country to ensure equitable healthcare deliver for Ghanaians.
He said the government failed to meet the Abuja Declaration target of spending a minimum of 15 per cent of its total expenditure to improve health.
He said the government achieved on average 7.8 per cent between 2011 and 2017, adding that government’s under financing of the sector was affecting accessibility and quality.
Mr Akolgo said allocations to primary healthcare declined from 66 per cent of health spending in 2012 to 28 per cent in 2013, 23 per cent in 2014 and recovered slightly in 2015 to 47 per cent and back up in 2016 to 63 per cent and then declined again to 56.7 per cent in 2017.
He said this shows an inconsistent and lowering trend in the allocations of primary healthcare.
Mr Ernest Awoosah Tay, the Acting Executive Director, ISODEC, said ISODEC’s approach to advocacy normally starts with a research, identify the issues and then carry it forward or they develop a concept, pilot it and then carry it through advocacy.
He said years back one of their biggest advocacy issues that they tackled, which was very successful was water and this he attributed to the fact that they spent time on the field learning about water before the project finally took off.
“We also learnt that to have a very effective advocacy agenda, you should have a strong network backing,” he said.
Mr Bernard Anaba, a Policy Analyst at ISODEC, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, said the project sought to look at Government funding in the area of human development index such as water, sanitation, health and education; and how they were impacting on the economy.
He said according to the UNDP human development index, Ghana was way below average; which the nation must improve upon.
The report said in terms of outcomes, there is still a gap in mental health treatment as well as the old problem of high infant and maternal mortalities.
It said there was, however, the commitment to build 250 more CHPS compounds throughout the 10 regions of Ghana, with or without National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF), internally generated fund (IGF) was the main contributor to health financing with a rise from 26.0 per cent in 2012 to 51.9 per cent in 2013 but fell in 2014 to 31.9 per cent and further to 23.6 per cent, 26.5 per cent and 16.4 per cent in 2015, 2016 and 2017 respectively.
It said this was a worrying situation given that health care was mostly financed directly by individual households which, the poor are the most adversely affected
The report said compensation or wages and salaries-takes bulk of the fund to the sector about 90 per cent.
It said investment in health infrastructure had been declining and this coupled with decrease in expenditure on goods and services have serious implications for quality of care leading to congestion and the ‘no-bed’ problem.
It said within the research period, the Government spending on health as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), was between 2.6 per cent and 4.4 per cent with NHIF but between 1.6 per cent and 3.4 per cent of NHIF not included in the calculation.
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