By Albert Allotey
Accra, Dec. 13, GNA -Stakeholders in health have been called upon to build trusted partnership to work towards effective non-communicable diseases (NCDs) services at the primary healthcare level to help attain the universal health coverage.
Dr. Anarfi Asamoah-Baah, former Deputy Director-General of the WHO and Presidential Coordinator for Ghana’s COVID-19 Response made the call at a two-day 5th National High-Level Meeting on NCDs in Accra.
The meeting was on the theme: “Investing in NCD Service Delivery at Primary Healthcare Level to Achieve Universal Health Coverage.” and was held in line with the National Health Policy, National NCD Policy, and the National NCD Strategy.
It was organised by the Ghana NCD Alliance (GhNCDA) and the Private Health Sector Alliance – Ghana (PHSAG) in collaboration with the Ministry of Health (MoH), Ghana Health Service (GHS), and the World Health Organisation (WHO).
It was sponsored by the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) Gmbh on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (bmz), Ghana Hearth Initiative (GHI), the World Vision International (WVI), Medtronic LABS and PATH.
Dr Asamoah-Baah urged the health sectors to adopt the same spirit in the COVID-19 pandemic by developing business opportunities towards the NCDs crisis in Ghana.
“One of the developments in our COVID response was how the private sector saw the crisis as an opportunity. The best example is how the private laboratory system was expanded and of cost the famous frontier company at the Airport.
“Private hospitals overnight became treatment centres. People make business out of nose masks, sanitizers, veronica buckets, thermometers, private funeral homes saw it as an opportunity to make money and overnight our families and friends became the suppliers of Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs),” he stated.
He added: “So my main point is that you should not see the NCD crisis as just a crisis but also an important business opportunity.”
Dr Beatrice Wiafe Addai, the Chairperson of GhNCDA in a welcoming address said the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provided a shared responsibility in promoting global peace and prosperity through the provision of universal health coverage and that this challenges all State, and non-state actors, to facilitate unhindered access to healthcare delivery services devoid of all financial constraints, for all.
“Achieving unhindered access to healthcare services devoid of all financial challenges, imposed a huge responsibility on the Alliance and the private sector, to actualize the national NCD strategy designed to secure a significant reduction in Ghana’s dual burden of communicable, and non-communicable diseases,” she stated.
She said the theme for the meeting directly feeds and reflect our primary national response to end the NCD epidemic locally, adding that; “May I hasten to state that achieving the ‘health for all’ target cannot be achieved, and should not be pursued in isolation.”
Dr Wiafe Addai said strategies evolved towards the attainment of that noble goal should be linked up to the total attainment of all the other 16 goals, with a direct bearing on the Alliance’s critical mission to drive down the mind-boggling statistics on noncommunicable diseases.
She said the new wave of noncommunicable diseases reported to our ill-equipped healthcare facilities imposed a much heavier duty on us all to integrate our collective efforts for a robust national response to the menace.
The main brain behind creating the National High-Level platform, the Chairperson said was to elevate or bring to the fore the NCD challenge for national visibility and for appropriate national response.
“The event and the activities of the Ghana NCD Alliance over the past years has helped in putting the spotlight on NCDs in Ghana. It has created some level of awareness and given some policy directions on NCDs.
“The expectation of the GhNCDA is to ensure that government owns and institutionalise the National High-Level Meeting on NCDs for it to gain the much more needed attention. I daresay we risk a spike in NCD statistics if policy makers and healthcare institutions fail to prioritize the conditions and extend the needed care to afflicted patients,” she stated.
Dr Wiafe Addai said it was important to highlight the rising cases of obesity and overweight in Ghanaian children especially those in the private/international schools, stating: “This if not checked will increase the NCD burden in the future generations.
“The Alliance has taken the lead and will request for support of partners here to join us to plan towards reducing the rate at which obesity is rising among our kids. The Alliance is apprehensive NCDs could spiral out of control, and push same to the precipice, the tipping end, if we look back, having put our shoulders to the wheel.”
Dr Wiafe Addai appealed to blue chip companies and high net worth individuals to rally behind the Alliance and give them the needed financial muscle to maintain and improve on gains recorded on patients with stroke, hypertension, some cancers and diabetes.
GNA