Hon. Regional Minister Receives The Hon. Minister Of Health For The Revolutionary Government Of Zanzibar And Officials Of The Ministry Of Health Of United Republic Of Tanzania And Zanzibar
The Hon. Minister of Health of the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar, Hon. Nassor Ahmed Mazrui has led a team of officials from the Ministries of Health of Tanzania Mainland and Zanzibar of the United Republic of Tanzania and Zanzibar to pay a courtesy call on the Hon. Volta Regional Minister Dr. Archibald Yao Letsa on Tuesday December 06, 2022.
The team were accompanied by officials of the Ministry of Health (MoH), Ghana, Representative of the Ghana Health Service and Management Members of the Regional Directorate of the Ghana Health Service.
Leading the visitors to introduce themselves to the Hon. Regional Minister, the Acting Head of Quality Unit of the Directorate of Policy, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation of the MoH, Ms. Selina Dussey stated that earlier in the year the MoH received officials from five (5) African Countries to learn about the Community Scorecard Concept in primary health care delivery. She said the officials were brought to the Volta Region for the study and experience-sharing. However, she indicated that the officials were not able to pay a courtesy call on the Hon. Regional Minister. She said it, therefore, became necessary that the new set of officials be brought to pay a courtesy call on the Hon. Regional Minister.
The Hon. Regional Minister welcomed the visitors on behalf of the Volta Regional Co-ordinating Council (VRCC) and stated it was an honour to host them. He expressed his excitement about their presence in the Region to find out about what the Region was doing in terms of health care provision, and to also share their experiences with the health care professional of the Region.
Dr. Letsa stated that the Ghana had made great progress in primary health care delivery. He noted that the Region could boast of an ultra-modern Emergency Operation Centre.
Furthermore, he noted that there was community participation in everything done in the health care sector of the Region, and cited the Community Health Planning and Services (CHPS) concept as a typical example.
He intimated that the Volta Regional Co-ordinating Council (VRCC) was doing its best to maintain the standards set and informed the visitors of the VRCC being ranked the best-performing Co-ordinating Council in the Country in 2020 and 2021.
The leader of the team, Hon. Mazrui expressed appreciation to the Hon. Regional Minister for the warm reception and great hospitality extended to them.
He indicated that they were in the Region not only to learn but also to exchange ideas with their counterparts in the health sector.
He posited that there were striking similarities between Ghana and the United Republic of Tanzania and Zanzibar.
Hon. Mazrui emphasised the need for community involvement in decision-making in the health sector and called for a paradigm shift in order that a bottom-up approach would be adopted in policy planning and implementation.
On his part, the Programme Officer of Alliance Des Dirigeants Africains Centre Le Paludisme (ALMA), Mr. Diego Duque stated that the Community Scorecard Concept was introduced in August 2018 under Primary Health Care Delivery in Ghana. He expressed gratitude to the Volta Region for offering the opportunity to other countries to learn about the concept in Ghana, for the Region continues to remarkably implement the concept.
He also expressed joy about the level of community participation in the planning and implementation of health policies.
He, however, expressed interest in finding out about how feedback from the communities are conveyed to the District Assemblies for incorporation into the Planning and budgeting processes of the Assemblies.
A consultant with ALMA, Mr. Ayire Adongo who contributed to the discussions praised the Volta Region for being the best-performing Region in the implementation of the Community Scorecard Concept.
The Acting Regional Director of Health, Dr. Senanu Djokoto who stated that the team were in the Region to learn from the success story of the Region in the implementation of the Community Scorecard Concept, acknowledged the support the Regional Director of Ghana Health Service enjoyed from the Hon. Regional Minister. He posited that the implementation of the Concept had resulted in improvement in primary health care delivery in communities.
Elaborating on the support enjoyed from the Hon. Regional Minister, Dr. Djokoto stated that the support had enabled the Directorate to chalk a number of successes. He therefore expressed gratitude to the Hon. Regional Minister for his continued support and assured him of the determination of the Directorate to continue to make him proud in the years ahead.
Finally, He enumerated some novel policies the Directorate is implementing which would be scaled-up to the rest of the country. The policies include Hospitals Peer Review and Network of Practice.
