By Ewoenam Kpodo
Ho, June 14, GNA- Mr Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, Minister of Health, has said Ghana’s health system is shifting from “sick care” to prevention, with a new plan that takes health professionals from hospitals into homes and communities.
“Prevention is better than cure,” the Minister declared during engagements at the Volta Regional launch of the government’s Free Primary Healthcare (FPHC) programme in Ho, saying “We will move health professionals from house to house, village to village, town to town. That is how we do early detection.”
The FPHC policy, a key government intervention, seeking to advance universal health coverage in Ghana and launched by President John Mahama in April this year, removes financial barriers to essential primary health services while strengthening preventive, promotive, and basic curative care.
Under the programme currently being rolled out in 150 underserved districts, with a nationwide scale-up planned by 2027, health workers will conduct basic checks in communities – temperature, blood pressure, blood sugar and others, an approach targeting Ghana’s silent killers.
“Many people have hypertension and diabetes without knowing. By the time they realise, stroke has already struck. If we catch it early, it does not progress to complicated stages,” the Minister said.
Mr Akandoh said to deliver targets of the initiative, over GH¢500 million in medical equipment had been procured for primary health facilities, with tricycles and motorbikes to move health workers between communities.
He urged citizens to subscribe to the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) for a comprehensive service package, clarifying that FPHC, accessible at the community level including CHPS compounds, health centres, polyclinics and health kiosks “complements rather than replaces” the NHIS, which is required to access treatment from district, regional and teaching hospitals.
Mr Akandoh said likewise, the Ghana Medical Trust Fund (MahamaCares) complements FPHC and the NHIS by closing the critical financing gap for high-cost, specialised treatment like cancers that often falls beyond the routine NHIS coverage.
The Health Minister charged regional ministers and district chief executives to “take charge and own the programme. This is about making sure government policies work in your district.”
Dr Caroline Amissah Reindorf, Deputy Director-General, Ghana Health Service, on behalf of the Director-General, said work (training programmes, funding to regions and districts and integration of personnel into the system) had started to make these healthcare initiatives a reality, deeming the FPHC as a large-scale healthcare programme with a clear goal to ensure Ghanaian communities thrive through improved access, prevention, and quality care.
Dr Peter Yeboah, Executive Director, Christian Health Association of Ghana, said the FPHC promotes social protection, solidarity, and the highest economic quality of healthcare for everyone in the country and with a collective support, the programme would catalyse growth and development in Ghana’s health sector.
Dr Senanu Djokoto, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, National Health Insurance Authority, on behalf of the CEO, pledged the Authority’s full support for the FPHC programme to ensure that all citizens have access to quality healthcare services without financial hardship.
GNA
Edited by Maxwell Awumah/Lydia Kukua Asamoah
Reporter: Ewoenam Kpodo