NPP to scale up disease prevention strategies

By Francis Ameyibor, GNA
Accra, Oct. 21, GNA - A government of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) would ensure that the right to health of Ghanaians is guaranteed through an established health sector with sustainable ability to deliver affordable, equitable and easily accessible healthcare.

'To realise this vision, NPP government under Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo will expand health promotion programmes, scale up disease prevention strategies and improve access to curative and emergency services.'

This was captured in the Party's Election 2016 manifesto document which was made available to the Ghana News Agency (GNA).

The publication is part of the GNA's project: 'GNA Tracks Election 2016,' is being funded by Ghana Oil Company Limited (GOIL) the nation's foremost indigenous oil marketing company and CIMG 2015 Petroleum Company of the year.

The project seeks to sensitise the electorate on the various issues raised by the political parties, elections management body and other governance institutions.

It also seeks to ensure that gender and social inclusion in national politics and to provide voice for the youth, vulnerable groups, opinion leaders and the broader spectrum of the society, as well as contribute its quota to the achievement of a peaceful poll on December 7.

Another objective of the project is to create a platform to dissect the manifestoes of all political parties and provide in-depth analysis of each thematic area to the electorate to enable them to make an informed judgment.

'NPP government will embark on vigorous human resource and health infrastructure development and strengthening of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).'

The Party's health policy is premised on global health concerns, national health emergencies and national health concerns.

On the global health concerns an NPP government would focus on epidemic preparedness, the threat of epidemics - Ebola, Meningitis, Zika virus, Yellow Fever, antimicrobial resistance, and non-communicable diseases.

On the national health emergencies an NPP government would aim at dealing with health financing gap, strengthen emergency service providers to deal with acute injuries and disasters.

'An NPP government will deal with poor sanitation - pervasive filth and resulting diseases, public education to discourage teenage pregnancy and early marriage, and embark on road safety campaign to reduce high road traffic accidents.'

The next NPP government would revive the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to make it efficient, with capacity to finance health services on a timely basis in a bid to achieve universal health coverage for Ghanaians.

The NPP would review and restructure the sources of funding, as well as the institutional arrangements for the management of the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF).

It would also increase budgetary allocations to the NHIS, direct and strictly cede all funds raised through the NHIA levy into the NHIF, and concentrate on activities that focus on quality patient treatment, medication, and care.

An NPP government would utilise the best in technology and health insurance management protocols to tackle waste, corruption, and insurance claim fraud under the NHIS.

This would include completely phasing out the manual processing of claims (claims management), which currently stands at about 90 per cent, tightly linking services and drugs to hospital attendance, and treatment to diagnosis.

An NPP government would adopt a modernised strategy towards drugs procurement, including the establishment of a preferred pharmacy network, incentivising appropriate prescriptions, and gradually shifting away from the Central Medical Stores arrangement, and emphasis on preventive healthcare.

GNA