In a bid to better respond to emerging public health threats, the Ministry of Health (MoH) has launched a strategic plan to guide the restructuring of Ghana’s health workforce.
The document, to be implemented over the next five years, would ensure that there is better coordination between human, animal and environmental health to ensure a healthier population.
It would, among others, guide the equitable recruitment, distribution, progression and possible exit of health workers across all sectors, for the country to remain on course in achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and other global health targets.
Launching the “Public Health Workforce Strategic Plan” in Accra yesterday, a Deputy Minister of Health, Tina Naa Ayeley Mensah, said the plan was consistent with the government’s vision to ensure that Ghanaians enjoy healthy and productive lives in a healthy environment.
In line with the “One Health Concept,” the strategy, she said, would also guide health training institutions and health-allied agencies to know exactly how many health workers should be produced per cadre for optimal health of the populace.
“Inability to implement this plan would be detrimental to the health needs of the people of Ghana and so, I implore all agencies and institutions to ensure that the document is utilised in their various areas,” she urged.
Ms Mensah expressed the ministry’s commitment to monitoring the implementation of targets under the plan to respond to public health emergencies.
The Director General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, said the strategic plan emphasised the multi-disciplinary nature to public health response.
“Environmental, animal and human health, water and sanitation, local government all come together.
“We have a live experience with COVID-19 where we realise that we couldn’t work alone but work with others to achieve outcomes. COVID-19 forced us together and moving forward, we want to maintain and strengthen that collaboration,” he said.
Clinical Epidemiologist and Senior Lecturer at the University of Ghana School of Public Health, Professor Ernest Kenu, in an overview of the plan said it would help put a stop to the situation where health-related efforts were done in silos.
“During the 2017 Joint External Evaluation, Ghana had a low score in health workforce strategy but based on this document it will help address that gap and put all efforts related to health into a consolidated one to be tracked, reviewed and reported on annually,” he noted.
BY ABIGAIL ANNOH
