Government initiates project to establish health centers nationwide

Government has initiated a new project to establish five polyclinics in each of the 10 regions.

Minister of Health, Alban Bagbin says the government will also establish a hospital in each district to curb the persistent inequalities in health care between the northern and southern sectors.

Equipment for the health facilities will cost $267 million.

The Minister who was speaking at the Ministry of Health's 2012 summit in Accra on Monday said the sector is introducing two new vaccines namely pneumococcal and Rotavirus to fight against pneumonia and diarrheal in children.

The 5-day summit which is on the theme 'Going beyond strategy to Action: All hands on deck for Millennium Development Accelerated Framework (MAF)' brought together representatives of the Ministry of Health and its agencies, development partners, civil society and other stakeholders to review performance and map out strategies for the way forward.

Mr. Bagbin said the government was committed to implementing policies that will make neglected communities attractive to young health workers.

He condemned the poor attitude of some health care professionals and urged them to be more dedicated to their work.

Dr. Afisah Zakariah, Head of the Health Ministry's Monitoring and Evaluation Unit, said the current rate of doctor to patient ratio remains high at 1: 10,500 whilst that of nurse to patient is 1: 1,240.

She said the number of HIV patients accessing anti-retroviral drugs has reduced from 65,914 to 59,007 indicating an improvement over the previous year although more could have been achieved.