Accra, Dec. 14, GNA - A three-day workshop to assess the contribution of the private sector in health care delivery in Ghana, began in Accra on Monday.

The workshop, a follow-up to a similar one organised in July this year, would discuss findings and identify information gaps in the on-going assessment of the sector to help in mapping out a strategy to improve the involvement of the private sector in health. It would also identify factors that created and sustained the role of the private sector in health care delivery, provide information for decision making and facilitate productive engagement between the public and private sector.

Dr Benjamin Kunbuor, Minister of Health, addressing the opening session, commended the Results for Development (R4D), private consultants who undertook the World Bank sponsored assessment project. He said there was the need to understand how effectively the private sector could complement government's efforts to meet the strategic objectives of the health sector.

Dr Kunbuor noted that the health sector in Ghana had undergone tremendous changes over the last two decades, with radical reforms within the public health sector in the manner health services were planned, funded and implemented.

He said the adoption of a sector-wide approach to health development, marked a distinct departure from project aid, and paved the way for a different approach to partnerships in health care delivery. Dr Kunbuor explained that collaboration with the private sector and support of private initiatives in health was a key strategy to improve access to services, especially those services that were beyond primary health care.

He said private sector involvement in improving quality and standards of training and human resource development as well as the provision of a critical mass of tertiary services in the last decade had contributed immensely to improvement in health services in Ghana. "Government would remain committed to ensuring that policies and programmes that would support private health sector involvement in health care delivery are supported, "he said.

Dr Kunbuor pointed out that recommendations from the workshop was critical in providing the required information for the way forward to enhance the provision of health care delivery in the country, and encouraged participants to be critical about the challenges facing the private sector and make appropriate recommendations that would lead to actions and achievable results within the next four years.

Dr Khama Rogo, Head of Policy Sector of the World Bank, said most African countries might not be able to meet the targets of attaining the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

He attributed the failure to high rate of HIV/AIDS, Malaria, high child and maternal mortality rate and malnutrition all resulting from poverty, as well as poor and inadequate health infrastructure in African countries. Dr Rogo said the contribution of the private sector to health though enormous, remained handicapped in inadequate public policies and regulations to support the sector, lack of finance and expertise, lack of quality assurance and improvement, insufficient supply of skilled health workers, as well as lack of financial protection or sustainable financing. "Countries that engage rather than ignore the private sector would be more effective if they make the private sector an integral part of their national health strategy, "he said.

Dr Mustapha Ahmed, Chairman of Parliamentary Select Committee on Health, noted that health care delivery in Ghana was a huge challenge which was not possible for a single source to handle and find solutions to its numerous problems and called for collaboration, networking and team work to achieve success.

He enumerated problems in the health sector such as inadequate infrastructure, funding as well as the poor distribution of health workers and professionals to health facilities in the country. Dr Ahmed said that the inability of government abide by international declarations was also retarding efforts to meet the country's health care delivery. 14 Dec. 09