A total of 193 health facilities across the country have been enrolled onto the government electronic health (e-health) platform by the end of June, this year.
Dr Mohammed Amin Adam, the Minister of Finance who disclosed this while presenting the Mid-year Budget Review in Parliament on Tuesday, said the government was aiming at connecting a number of health facilities at the primary level onto the system before the end of the year to accelerate efforts at achieving universal health coverage (UHC).
“The e-health project is progressing steadily with concentration on health centres and polyclinics this year. As of June 2024, a total of 49 polyclinics and 144 health centres have been connected.
This is to enhance access to patient data at the point of care, claims management and real-time bio-surveillance data as part of measures to strengthen our health delivery system,” he said.
Launched in 2017, the national e-health strategy provides an electronic platform for the networking of health facilities including streamlining medical records, patient data and real-time bio-surveillance data towards a paperless records and reporting health system.
According to the minister, the e-health, as part of the government digitilisation agenda, was to promote efficiency and resilience of the healthcare system for better outcomes and the government was committed to sustaining it.
Touching on ongoing health projects, Dr Adam pointed out that projects including the Urology and Nephrology Centre of Excellence at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH), District hospitals at Kumawu and Fomena in the Ashanti Regions as well as five Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) centres had been completed between January and June this year.
He noted that in an effort to increase access to health services, the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) had reviewed its benefit package to include childhood cancers, prostate cancer, mental health care dialysis services and care for sickle cell patients.
“By the end of 2024, the NHIS intends to increase enrolment of active members from 14.5 million representing 44.3 per cent coverage to 20.8 million representing 63.5 of the total population.
NHIS will also intensify sensitisation on the electronic enrolment platforms by introducing cashless payment, integration with GIFMIS platform, e-receipts and e-payments,” he stated.
BY ABIGAIL ANNOH
