Gov’t urged to accelerate efforts to decentralise health delivery services

 The Chief Executive Officer of Cassona Global Imaging Limit­ed, a leading distributor of advanced medical imaging technologies in Ghana and across Africa, Charles Nnamdi Ihekire, has urged the govern­ment to accelerate efforts at decentralising health delivery services across the country to meet the health needs of the populace.

He expressed concern about long travel distanc­es particularly among rural folks to access healthcare, a situation which remains a major setback to Ghana’s attainment of universal health coverage (UHC).

“The centralised health services and equipment often at regional and tertiary levels of care is unsustainable and costly and Ghana must adopt ways to improving the current situation,” he urged.

Mr Ihekire was addressing a forum by his company to discuss ways to improve Gha­na’s healthcare system as part of activities to commemorate Ghana’s 68th independence anniversary.

He emphasised the crit­ical need for Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) to drive development in the health­care system.

“No man is an island. We all have to come together to build the healthcare system in Ghana and that is the ap­proach of Cassona to partner government to make health­care affordable,” he stated.

The CEO further called for attention to be paid to the primary level of healthcare, particularly for women and children, for a healthier popu­lation.

He underscored the need for infrastructural develop­ment, citing transportation networks as a crucial example to ensure sustainable health­care development.

“The government must build the infrastructural de­velopment particularly invest in diagnostic equipment which is essential in healthcare de­livery and that is why PPP is the way to go,” he noted.

Meanwhile, Mr Ihekire an­nounced that an operational headquarters of the company was currently under construc­tion in Labone, Accra and expected to be completed in June.

The facility would fea­ture a diagnostic centre with state-of-the-art equipment, including Computed Tomog­raphy (CT), ultrasound, x-ray, and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machines.

 By Abigail Annoh