THE EVOLUTION AND CURRENT STATUS OF THE HEALTHCARE SYSTEM IN GHANA
1 INTRODUCTION
Ghana, a country of close to 28 million people located in sub-Saharan Africa,is located in western sub-Saharan Africa on the Gulf of Guinea, Ghana covers an area of approximately 239,460 square kilometres. The country was formed in 1957 from the merger of the British colony of Gold Coast and British Togoland, becoming the first sub- Saharan country in colonial Africa to achieve independence. For administrative purposes, Ghana is subdivided into 10 regions, of which Greater Accra and Ashanti have the greatest proportion of urbanization, at 90.5% and 60.6% respectively; the regions are subdivided into 170 administrative districts (comprising 164 districts/municipals
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After the attainment of independence in 1957, Ghana was committed to providing free healthcare. This was a policy that remained in place until the economic crisis in the 1970s and 1980s when government had to cut down healthcare expenditure by a whooping 20% which lead to a shortage of healthcare supplies, lack of moral among staff and a halted investment in hospital infrastructure. As a rescue measure, the country sought the help of the World Bank. In return for such support, the Ghanaian government agreed to impose a charge for healthcare services which equated to 15% of recurrent expenditure. This system wasn’t entirely successful in that it lead to a rapid decline in service use of more than 50% countrywide and over 70% in the rural areas. It is important to mention that this decline also influenced much of the rural population to turn to self medication and traditional medicine which is still , incredibly popular today enjoying wide …show more content…
This aimed to make free health care available to all, but particularly to the poor and disadvantaged. The health insurance is a social intervention that sought to replace the “cash and carry system” of health care financing and to increase access to basic quality health care through the establishment of district-wide insurance schemes in Ghana (International Labour Organization, 2005). According to Act 650 (2003) of the national health insurance law, the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) is authorized to establish the following schemes: District Mutual Health Insurance Scheme, Private Commercial Health Insurance Schemes, and Private Mutual Health Insurance Scheme. Currently, there are 145 district-wide health insurance schemes operating in Ghana of which Brong Ahafo region has 19 administrative centres of NHIS. Three categories of health insurance were authorised.
District Mutual Health Insurance Schemes – these were public insurance schemes open to all Ghanaian residents. The schemes were to be funded predominantly from the central government national health insurance levy supplemented by annual member contributions. Responsibility for regulating the schemes, accrediting providers and managing funds was given to the National Health Insurance Authority
Before the medical care was formed, many people in the country died due to lack of money to do to the hospital. When Tommy Douglas was young, once he was sent to the hospital because of bone infection. His family could not afford the treatment fee, he may lost his leg if a surgeon did not pay the treatment fee for him. This experience planted the seed for his universal public health care. (Tommy Douglas Research Institute, n.d.)
African civilizations were transformed through trade. This allowed art and government for new developments and changes. As civilizations changed, aesthetics advanced based on the geography and new cultural aspects, along with new governing influences. These African civilizations thrived on their own by using leadership and other ideas from neighboring trade countries. Trade modified aspects of certain kingdoms from religion to social structures.
Healthcare and access to medical aid vary from country to country, and because of this inconsistency, there has been an ongoing debate on which country has it right. While America is Canada’s closest neighbour, our countries have prominent differences when comparing our Healthcare Systems. Although the United States health care has vastly improved since 2010, the system still acts with major flaws leaving over 30 million residents without health coverage today. Throughout this essay, I will be comparing at the drastic differences of Healthcare Systems in Canada and the United States. The most prevalent differences between the two healthcare systems would be that Canada has a universal healthcare plan for citizens and the U.S has private and public plan.
Furthermore, with the indication of health coverage, necessary care and improved population health
I grew up in Mombasa, Kenya in a less fortunate state, I saw my parents struggling to raise us. Health care was something they could not afford, whenever we felt sick we were treated with traditional medicine of which is only
In the era of economic freedom, there was a progressive reversal i.e. interest paid by poor was used by rich to invest in hospital. Hospital became feasible for private initiative the moment sickness turned into a spectacle. Hence helping ended up by
Sir Michael Marmot put into perspective how serious social disparities are and how they influence health not only between countries but also, within countries. The issue is not medical care; in fact the United States spends the most on medical care. You would initially think the country in which spends the most on medical care must have higher health rates. Well, believe it or not, this is actually false, for instance, sixty-two countries had higher maternal health rates than the United States. This displays that a lack of medical care fundamentally is not the conflict, whereas social inequality is.
Mali and Ghana Essay Ghana and Mali were one of Africa’s greatest ancient civilizations. The Ghana kingdom was founded around the year 750, and developed between the Senegal and Niger River, while the Mali kingdom came about in 1240 after taking over Ghana. Rich in trade and supplies, their empires flourished under their rulers. The Ghana and Mali empire had a series of key similarities and differences throughout their years as a civilization, such as education, their culture, and their resource for trade.
Introduction This paper will discuss and analyze the healthcare system in Haiti on an economic, social, political and demographic point of view. Also, how does the healthcare system impact the family and how it affects the elderly and the community. I chose to discuss on Haiti healthcare system because it ranked one of the worse healthcare systems in the world and the information I gathered was rather interesting. A healthcare system is an organization which consists of healthcare professionals, other staff and resources that work together to deliver care to the community or target population.
It may surprise you that, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) and World Bank, at least 400 million people lack access to essential health services. They said, at least 6 percent of people in 37 low and middle income countries are living in poverty because they must spend the money for health. Health care services is the most importance thing that we need because it is not only for improve the health but also through individual behaviour and lifestyle choices such as quitting smoking, eating the nutritious food and living a healthy lifestyles.
Then policies with comprehensive list of benefits were firstly introduced by the Health Insurance of Boston in the early 1847. There is two types of health insurance in any community. The first is public health insurance which is the type of insurance that is supplied by the country's government and it does not require payments adding
The 8 factors in the True Access Model include: (1) historical, (2) structure, (3) financing, (4) interventional, (5) preventive, (6) resources, (7) major health issues, and (8) health disparities. The following factors are described in more detail. First, the historical factor describes the health and well-being of each country and discovers how health and access to health services have been historically well-defined. Structure is the second factor in the model and observes the assembly of health care delivery; which includes infrastructure, policies, staff needs, roles, and responsibilities. The third factor is financing which is a challenging factor to address in regards to ‘true
The Ghana Empire was the first of the three major West African empires, and made many great progresses during its reign. However, the most important contribution that the Ghana Empire made during its rule was the advancement in trade. Because of its fine decision making in the taxing of the goods and the able rulers, Ghana was able to successfully expand its territory and become a very prosperous Empire.
Health care payments are the ones that push 100 million people every year to enter into poverty line since they are short of financial protection. Sub Saharan countries in Africa can be considered best examples for these conditions (Anyamele, 2011). Wealth becomes a prominent factor for health as evident from the above example. It is revealed that income and health have a correlation where the changes in one affect the other.
While the prevalence of malnutrition (height for age) in areas with an urban population share below 20% is 48.9%, this figure is only 25.3% in areas with an urban population share between 50% and 90%. The same trend is found with weight for age: while the rate is about 26.2% in areas with an urban population share below 20%, the figure is only 9.5% in areas where that share is between 50% and 90%. Differences between urban and rural areas in health care centres and access to health facilities explain the differences in life expectancy and childhood malnutrition. On average, only 46.2% of African children are taken to a health provider: only 41.7% in areas with an urban share less than 20% and 51.2% in areas with an urban share between 50% and 90%. Moreover, births attended by skilled staff are only 38.3% in areas with an urban population share below 20% and 78.0% in areas with that share between 50% and 90%.