The authorities has been enhandled to urgently institute a devoted funding mechanism for public well being emergencies amidst recurrent illness outbreaks and dwindling donor assist.
Discussants at a nationwide dialogue on public well being emergency financing in Accra yesterday, noticed that whereas illness outbreaks had been inevitable, a funding pool in place may support efficient response and administration strategies.
In his comment, Stephen Atasige, the in-country Coordinator for the Stop Epidemics mission applied by SENDGhana, a non-governmental organisation, mentioned the latest withdrawal of the US (US) support to well being interventions coupled with Ghana’s a number of illness burden may pose grave influence if proactive measures usually are not taken in establishing a fund.
“This is a chance for us to start to get extra proactive about mobilising home sources and this needs to be intentional.
There needs to be some coverage in place to make sure that we’re organising that funding mechanism within the type of a fund that can cater for our public well being emergency preparedness and response efforts in order that we’re capable of face up to the shocks that include these emergencies once they happen,” he defined.
As the federal government prepares to current its maiden price range subsequent month, Mr Atasige urged them to allocate a transparent price range for public well being emergencies to not solely assist include future occurrences however guarantee Ghana was effectively geared up financially to reply any future outbreaks.
Moreover, he proposed a repurposing of the COVID-19 levy as a major supply for mobilising home monetary sources to arrange a public well being emergency fund for the nation.
“We all know as a rustic, we aren’t doing very effectively with regards to allocating funds for well being by means of our nationwide budgets though we’re signatory to the Abuja Declaration to allocate at the very least 15 per cent of our annual budgets for well being.
This has not been occuring over the interval so we’ve to take the chance that the COVID-19 levy presents us to refunction it as a funding supply for a well being emergency fund to make sure there may be this a pool of cash that’s constantly flowing by means of our levies for such outbreaks,” he emphasised.
The Nation Director for SENDGhana, Harriet Nuamah Agyemang, expressed hope that the federal government fast-tracks professionalcesses to ascertain the well being security invoice which makes provision for a public well being emergency fund.
She shared successes of the “Epidemics mission” over the past 4 years with key highlight on some Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) who’ve taken steps to put aside funds for public well being emergencies at their ranges.
Madam Agyemang commended the Decrease Manya Krobo Municipal Meeting, Birim South, Lambussie and Gushegu districts, who’ve superior in organising their district public well being emergency funds, urging others to emulate identical to higher handle future crises.
Mr Rex Manu Yeboah, the Deputy Director, Common Administration on the Ministry of Native Authorities, Chieftaincy and Spiritual Affairs, acknowledged that it was more economical to stop an epidemic than to answer one as soon as it escalates.
He inspired native government authorities to search out innovative methods to finance epidemic preparedness and response, whereas on the nationwide degree, identical can be carried out.
BY ABIGAIL ANNOH
