The Ashaiman Municipal Health Directorate has launched a Network of Practice (NoP) in some health centres within the municipality to provide efficient and effective primary health care (PHC) services to residents.
Madam Patience Ami Mamattah, the Ashaiman Health Director, speaking at one of the launches at the Tulaku Health Centre, said it had been recognised that the formation and support of primary care provider networks was an innovative approach to catalyse individual providers with the relatively weak capacity to provide robust PHC services.
Madam Mamattah said the purpose of the NoP was to help accelerate Ghana’s efforts towards the achievement of universal health coverage, noting that the country had done a lot over the years to improve primary health care, but a lot still needed to be done to address current gaps in the delivery of primary health care (PHC) services at the community and sub-district level.
She stated that current gaps in the healthcare delivery system include a lack of resources and their pull for PHC, as well as disjointed efforts at improving the population’s health.
She further said other significant barriers to service delivery at the sub-national level included poor referral systems, inefficient provider-payment mechanisms, and inadequate capacity to deliver the basic package of PHC services.
The health director highlighted that the key things under the NoP consisted of the pooling of resources—human, material, expertise, and equipment within a sub-district to deal with non-communicable diseases (NCDs), reproductive, maternal, neonatal, child health, and adolescent health and nutrition (RMNCAHN).
The NoP is also to increase networking and collaboration with mutual, technical, and operational support among healthcare facilities and improve and increase the range of service delivery activities, as the demonstrating networks have the potential to deliver equitable, high-quality PHC services while serving as a potential vehicle for achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by 2030.
“The initiative is tailored to existing health structures where providers work in concert to deliver health services to the populace within a geographical area. Among others, this involves planning to address service gaps, sharing of resources and performance management, and providing comprehensive, patient-centred networks that deliver equitably distributed, high-quality continuous care for common health conditions,” she said.
Madam Mamattah indicated that under the NoP, within a sub-district, is a model health centre like tertiary health care that is staffed and well equipped to provide a full package of PHC services, including basic obstetrics emergencies.
The model health centre, she said, then served as a hub to take referral cases from smaller clinics in the catchment areas called ‘SPOKES’, adding that the centre then referred seamlessly cases beyond them to the municipal hospital for further management, where if need be, the municipal hospital would in turn refer to a higher level if the case is beyond them.
“Evidence exists in other contexts that NoP can significantly improve PHC delivery by reducing fragmentation in coordinating referrals and services, ensuring accessible PHC for diverse communities, and leveraging limited funds and human resources to maximise performance at all levels of the health system,” she said.
NOP, she noted, hinged on multi-sectoral and disciplinary team effort with stakeholders, including faith-based organisations, the National Ambulance Service (NAS), the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), the Health Facility Regulatory Agency (HeFRA), civil society organisations, and the private sector.
She said all health managers, staff, and relevant stakeholders within the Ghana Health Service and across other agencies were encouraged to support the implementation of the NoP initiative, as it aims to foster better collaboration and strengthen the health system as a whole.
She further said the sustainability of the NoP strategy requires an integrated approach positioned within the existing systems and structures of the health sector and shall be maintained continuously over time as part of health system strengthening.
Madam Mamattah observed that community ownership, resource mobilisation, and accountability were key components for sustainability, therefore urging the leadership at the various levels to collaborate with stakeholders to promote and mobilise resources for NoP implementation.
Present at the launch were community members, the medical superintendent and management of Ashaiman Municipal Hospital, Community 22 Polyclinic, private sector health facilities, private schools, and the Ghana Police Service, among others.
