GHS commends media role in improving community health services
The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has commended the African Media and Malaria Research Network (AMMREN) for using journalism to help identify and address public health challenges across the country.
The Director of the Policy, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Division (PPMED) of the GHS, Dr Samuel Boakye-Boateng, gave the commendation at a Community Scorecard (CSC) Project Committee meeting in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region.
The CSC platform brings communities and health service providers together to assess people’s experiences with healthcare, identify operational gaps, agree on priority actions and strengthen mutual accountability.
Dr Boakye-Boateng urged AMMREN, a network of journalists from 10 African countries focused on malaria control and elimination, to flag challenges identified during the rollout of the CSC project while highlighting success stories from districts to help share best practices.
He said persistent challenges relating to infrastructure, staffing, medicines, essential resources, service availability and quality of care identified by communities could provide evidence for Regional Health Directorates to engage relevant stakeholders and decision-makers.
“Where communities identify persistent challenges relating to infrastructure, staffing, medicines, essential resources, service availability, or quality of care, the evidence can be used by Regional Health Directorates to engage relevant stakeholders and decision-makers,” he said.
Dr Boakye-Boateng said findings from the field provided critical evidence that could also support advocacy at the national level.
The meeting brought together 30 participants, including officials from the PPMED, representatives of Regional Health Directorates and implementing partners such as AMMREN, Hope for Future Generations (HFFG) and the West Africa Programme to Combat AIDS and STI (WAPCAS).
The CSC Project Focal Person at the PPMED, Ms Aseye Kpodotsi, commended the partner organisations for their contributions to media engagement, training and community mobilisation.
She identified delays in the release of funds as one of the major operational challenges facing the project, but said the GHS was working closely with the funding partner, Expertise France, to address the bottleneck.
Giving an update on the project, the AMMREN Coordinator, James Addy, said 52 journalists had so far been trained under the CSC initiative.
He said the journalists had produced 45 published reports following field deployments across the target districts during Phase One.
FROM KINGSLEY E. HOPE-KUMASI
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