Mrs Tina Gifty Naa Ayeley Mensah, Deputy Minister of Health, on Wednesday said medical innovations seem to be the only option to maximize quality health care delivery in the country.

She said to achieve major strides in healthcare delivery, there was the need for a multi-faceted approach complemented by collaborative partnership and innovations.

Mrs Mensah made this observation in a speech read on her behalf at the 2019 Healthcare Forum in collaboration with the Nyaho Dove Foundation, on the theme “Innovating for quality healthcare”, in Accra.

She said improving quality healthcare delivery in Ghana, has been one of the focus of government, saying that the contribution of the private sector has had an overall impact of the performance of the health sector, a phenomenon which had accounted for the huge successes in the provision of safe and quality service delivery.

She said government on its own could not have recorded these gains without the contribution of the private sector.

She admitted there were a lot more that could have been done in improving access to quality health care, including health care infrastructure, appropriate and modern technology, and adequate staff with requisite skills.

“These among many reasons are why stakeholders in both private and public sectors always need to collaborate and ensure that the citizens receive the best of health care.

“Innovative quality healthcare does not come cheap especially in our part of the world where we need to double our efforts because of low health budget allocation compared with other high-income countries.

“These low budgets are as a result of other pressing and vital needs that the government has commitments to,” she said.

Mrs Mensah noted that on its own, the government did not have resources to take all the cost in innovation for quality healthcare delivery, and to this end, a public-private partnership was evidenced by the use of the medical drone delivery services initiated by government.

She said this innovative idea was intended to provide a rapid response to medical emergencies especially in the hard to reach areas by flying emergency medical supplies on drones as well as lifesaving medical products selected by the MOH.

“One of the biggest pillars of this government has been how to grow this country without leaving anyone behind. Technology would play an essential role in advancing this policy.

“We want to get to the point where innovation and technology become the backbone of improving the way of work, impacting lifestyle and improving access to services irrespective of the locations in Ghana,” she said.

Dr Victoria Lokko, Medical Director Nyaho Medical Centre, said the forum has the focus of impacting healthcare delivery in Ghana and Africa as a whole, saying the event was organised by the Nyaho Dove Foundation, which is a corporate social responsibility part of Nyaho Medical Centre.

She said in their effort to collaborate around healthcare innovation in Ghana, this year’s forum and national conversation was about the healthcare and seeks to leverage the leadership powers of all industry players.

Dr Lokko said, “Over the past decade healthcare has experienced an explosion of innovations but this has still left the industry with more opportunities for innovations”.

Dr Lokko said healthcare institutions today were faced with the challenge to improve quality, reduce harm, improve healthcare access, eliminate waste, and lower cost to health delivery, and all these highlighted the need to engage relevant stakeholders and make this a reality.

She said the future of healthcare in Ghana lies in innovation, and it was an opportunity to start now.

Dr Elikem Tamaklo, Managing Director Nyaho Medical Centre, said Ghana’s national healthcare quality strategy, which aimed at continuously improving the health and wellbeing of Ghanaians through the development of a better-coordinated health system that places patients and communities at the centre of quality health care.

He noted that although it was an ambitious statement, it was one that they were committed to partner with the Ministry to make it happen.

“Every country based on the population has different priorities, but for us in Ghana, our next generations are faced with two huge significant issues including chronic diseases, and infectious diseases,” he said. Dr Tamaklo said, “We as a country have to tackle these two huge situations because, at the end of the day, it is our children and next generation who would be affected.”

He said there was the need to have a change of mindset to work together, saying Nyaho Medical Centre did not see its role as a solitary provider, because the reality was that as human beings we were dependent on each other and encouraged all to partake to tackle the root issues which were huge challenges that faced the country.