By Maxwell Awumah, GNA
Ho (V/R), Aug. 19, GNA – The Volta Regional Health Directorate of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) has intensified preparations for the implementation of Free Primary Health Care (FPHC), describing the policy as a critical pathway to achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in Ghana.
Dr Hectoria Awekeya, the Acting Deputy Director of Public Health of the Volta Region, announced this during the Directorate’s half-year performance review in Ho on Tuesday.
She outlined the region’s readiness, performance indicators, implementation gaps and strategies for strengthening primary healthcare delivery.
She said the FPHC was designed to make essential healthcare universally accessible and acceptable to communities through their participation and at a cost that individuals and the country could afford.
“The policy would focus on promotive, preventive and basic curative services at the primary level, including Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compounds, health centres and health kiosks, with emphasis on disease prevention, screening and early treatment,” she stressed.
Dr Awekeya said the policy would also strengthen referral linkages, with patients requiring more intensive care referred to district or municipal hospitals, while specialised conditions would be supported through appropriate national interventions.
She said the policy represented a shift from an episodic healthcare model, where people sought treatment only when sick, to active population health management, with health workers taking preventive, screening and follow-up services directly into communities.
She said the approach would require health facilities to integrate services around individuals and families across the life course, establish effective referral and feedback systems and ensure reliable availability of medicines, diagnostics and essential equipment.
Dr Awekeya said the Volta Region had undertaken activities towards operationalising the FPHC, including two regional-level launches, district launches, orientation programmes for regional managers and district staff, community engagements and the receipt of logistics and equipment.
She said data collection tools had been adapted and were ready for use, while frontline health workers had received practical training on the tools, indicators and targets. Population mapping had also been undertaken to support effective planning and outreach.
She, however, said some activities remained outstanding, including the completion of Health Facilities Regulatory Agency (HeFRA) and National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) processes, operationalisation of health kiosks, further training of frontline staff and establishment of functional referral and feedback systems.
Dr Awekeya said the region had set targets including 75 per cent antenatal care (ANC) coverage, 65 per cent skilled delivery, a 40 per cent family planning acceptor rate, teenage pregnancy below 10 per cent and at least 95 per cent Penta 3 immunisation coverage.
She said the region’s baseline performance showed ANC coverage at 65.8 per cent against a target of 75 per cent, skilled delivery at 57.9 per cent against 65 per cent, teenage pregnancy at 11.8 per cent against a target below 10 per cent and Penta 3 coverage at 74.1 per cent against the target of at least 95 per cent.
The Directorate also recorded institutional all-cause mortality of 30.4 per cent against a target of 18 per cent, while hypertension and diabetes indicators stood at 2.89 per cent and 0.9 per cent respectively.
She said FPHC offered opportunities to improve those indicators through active identification of pregnant women, early ANC linkage, community follow-up, birth preparedness, community-based counselling, adolescent-responsive sexual and reproductive health services and improved immunisation defaulter tracing.
She said community screening, early diagnosis and follow-up would also be strengthened for hypertension and diabetes, while household outreach would be used to identify people who were being missed by the formal health system.
The first batch of six implementing districts comprises Anloga, Agortime-Ziope, Akatsi North, North Tongu, South Dayi and Adaklu.
She said the districts were at different stages of operational readiness, with some having completed kiosk arrangements while HeFRA and NHIA processes remained ongoing.
By the end of the year, the Directorate expects the six districts to have functional health kiosks, increased household and community outreach, improved screening and stronger linkages for ANC, immunisation and family planning.
The districts are also expected to establish functional referral and feedback systems, improve routine reporting and record measurable improvements in selected health outcomes.
Dr Awekeya said championing FPHC required every district to own the policy, every health worker to understand their role and every CHPS zone to know the population it served.
She said households should also be aware of available services, while eligible clients should be actively identified and linked to care. Every referral, she added, must be completed and followed up.
She identified delays in the release of funds, shortages of human resources, infrastructure gaps, logistics and transportation challenges, poor internet connectivity and high community expectations as some of the major implementation challenges.
She called for stronger leadership and coordination at the regional, district and sub-district levels, saying health managers must use data to guide decision-making and ensure that services reached every household.
Dr Awekeya said FPHC was another important step towards achieving UHC and required strong monitoring, transparency, community participation and accountability for results.
She urged government, health workers, communities, local authorities and development partners to work together to make the policy successful and improve health outcomes in the region.
The Directorate also emphasised safety measures for health workers conducting community outreaches, including assessing risks before visits, planning routes and sharing them with colleagues, moving in pairs where necessary and using crash helmets when motorbikes were involved.
Health workers were also advised to be cautious around animals, knock and wait to be invited into homes, trust their instincts where they felt unsafe, remain polite and customer-friendly and avoid indiscriminate consumption of food and drinks during community visits.
GNA
Edited by Benjamin Mensah
Reporter: Maxwell Awumah
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