Accra, April 11, GNA - Development partners in health on Monday said the best way for Ghana to maintain focus on improving maternal and child health and address inequities in health care was to build a strong health system.

Speaking at the opening of Ministry of Health's (MOH) Health Summit, Dr Daniel Kertesz, World Health Organisation Country Director, who represented the Development Partners, said the strategy and actions aimed at improving the pillars of Ghana's health system must be co-ordinated to make a difference.

The Health Summit is a review meeting of the Ministry's performance of the previous year. It is also part of the Health Sector Wide Approach Arrangement entered into with its health partners. The five-day meeting, attended by the Ministry and its agencies from the national, regional and district levels, other ministries, departments and agencies as well as the academia will discuss the current situation of the sector and the results of the annual sector performance review.

Dr Kertesz noted that the possible approach to address the problem was to create a national task force or think-tank that will guide a co-ordinated and systematic approach in strengthening the health system.

"The think-tank made up of health experts and stakeholders from all levels could look at the health system holistically, define and prioritise ideas for strengthening Ghana's health systems and=85 act as an advisory body to government."

This, he said, would make national consensus on health systems easier to develop the sector's plan and access money for global health initiatives.

The development partners expressed concern about child and maternal health, which are Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 4 and 5, equity and strengthening of the health systems, he said, adding that child and maternal health should remain the top priority. Dr Kertesz attributed the persistence of the problem to the inability of the health sector to move from strategy to action by providing lifesaving services of sufficient quality to women. He said it was unfortunate that access to family planning services which reduced maternal mortality had persistently been excluded from coverage under the National Health Insurance Scheme. Dr Kertesz said as Ghana moved up to middle income status, it was necessary to make investments that would enable the health indicators to rise correspondingly.

The development partners commended the MOH for improving on the Health Sector Medium Term Development Plan after a thorough peer review by an independent team.

The Ministry's Emergency Obstetric Needs Assessment developed as an MDG acceleration framework for reducing maternal mortality was also described by the development partners as an excellent plan, which would receive support from them.

Mr Joseph Yieleh Chireh, Minister of Health, expressed concern about the recent outbreak of communicable diseases and called for a renewed approach of collaboration that would engage the appropriate Ministries, Departments and Agencies to address the health problems that would emerge.

He noted that the future of health in the country was determined not by the huge sums of money spent on drugs and health infrastructure but primarily by efforts to manage the environment. He expressed concern about maternal mortality and directed that all institutional maternal deaths be audited, adding: 93We can only do this when we tackle the issue with all seriousness."

The Minister called for the goodwill of all partners to ensure that the health agenda was pursued since partnership still remained an important framework for the sector's performance.

Professor Kofi Awunoor, Chairman of the Council of State, who presided, called for the need to structure the health system in a way that would make it less donor funded while it decentralised its programmes.