Nurses in the Upper East Region are to receive 1,320 medical kits under the government’s Free Primary Healthcare initiative, Health Minister Kwabena Mintah Akandoh has announced.
The allocation forms part of 9,000 medical kits, popularly referred to as “red bags,” to be distributed to nurses across the country to support the delivery of primary healthcare services.
Mr. Akandoh announced the intervention at a Free Primary Healthcare durbar at Zuarungu during President John Dramani Mahama’s Resetting Ghana Tour of the Upper East Region.
The Health Minister also disclosed that the government had released funds to cover payments for the July to September quarter of the programme, with each quarter expected to cost the state about GH¢35 million.
“We have released the population payments for July to September, and each quarter is costing the state GH¢35 million. So, we are fully prepared for the implementation of the Free Primary Healthcare,” he said.
Mr. Akandoh said the initiative represents a shift towards preventing diseases rather than concentrating resources primarily on treating people after they fall ill.
“Everyone will bear me witness that the cost of treating sickness is high, but the change now is that we are paying to prevent sickness and diseases instead of paying to treat sickness and diseases,” he stated.
The Minister said the National Health Insurance Scheme has played an important role in improving access to healthcare in Ghana, evolving from a pilot programme through the mutual health insurance system to the current national scheme.
“The National Health Insurance has served this country so well. It moved from the pilot to mutual and then to national, as we have it at the moment,” Mr. Akandoh said.
He explained that the government’s Free Primary Healthcare initiative, National Health Insurance Scheme and MahamaCares are intended to complement one another, with each addressing different healthcare needs.
“We have three interventions in the health sector, and none of them is replacing the other. They are complementing each other,” he said.
“We have Free Primary Healthcare, which has its limitations; we have National Health Insurance, which has its limits too; and we have MahamaCares. In the journey, we have one of these interventions to assist you,” he added.
The government says the Free Primary Healthcare initiative is intended to strengthen preventive healthcare, improve access to basic health services and reduce the financial burden associated with healthcare.
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