Madam Harriet Nuamah Agyemang, the Senior Programme Officer of SEND-Ghana, has called on corporate organisations and philanthropists to support health facilities with personal protective equipment to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
She also urged the Government to live up to its responsibilities by expanding health infrastructure and providing the basic equipment such as WASH amenities for the hospitals to function effectively.
Madam Agyemang made the call in an interview with the Ghana News Agency when the People for Health (P4H) Project held an accountability forum in Accra, which was attended by representatives of health establishments under the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA).
The forum discussed issues affecting clients at the hospitals such as long waiting hours, staff attitude, no-bed syndrome, and water challenges.
Madam Agyemang, who is also the facilitator of the programme, said: “We have discussed the issues dispassionately and at the end of it we have identified some few action areas that have to be worked on to ensure adequate water supply, soaps and sanitisers now that the COVID-19 is on and the figures rising.”
She said the AMA, at least, had four health facilities under its jurisdiction; the Kaneshie Polyclinic, Ussher Hospital, Mamprobi Polyclinic, and the Children’s Hospital, all of which needed support.
Another issue of concern was the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) because people who used their cards at the health facilities still paid for their medication, Madam Agyemang said.
“An issue with respect to the NHIS prescription form had come up because patients are issued with the prescription but that form, which is printed by the facility, is not reimbursed by the NHIS so it becomes an additional cost to them and since they don’t want to bear that cost they ask patients to go out and buy their medication,” she said.
Madam Agyemang entreated the health directorates to take up the issues and find lasting solutions to them.
Madam Jane Oku, the P4H Focal Person for the AMA, and the Chief Executive of the Janok Foundation, a community-based civil society organisation, commended the nurses for their commitment to work and urged them to keep it up.
The P4H Project is a consortium of the USAID, SEND-Ghana, the Ghana News Agency, and Penplusbyes, which use electronic means to empower the citizens to have a voice by placing their concerns on the Dashboard for the attention of health directorates and the Metropolitan/Municipal and District Assemblies for redress.