Vol. 3. "The Reason Why Local Clinics in Ghana are in Financial Difficulties"

In this 3rd of a series of publication, “Stay Home Stay with ViVID”, Katsumi Kurata will explain "the reason why local clinics in Ghana are in financial difficulties".

International NGO ViVID is currently conducting a joint project with the Sekyere Health Center (SHC) for the coronavirus preventative measures for Sekyere community. The SHC was established by Japanese ODA. It is the only medical institution in the community that carries out from the general medial treatments to regular medical examinations and childbirth. Also the SHC currently plays role in the center for the preventative measures against the coronavirus for Sekyere community. However, in the SHC due to a chronic shortage of operating funds, they have a lack of the medical masks / gloves, and protective clothings which are necessary for the medical staff to protect themselves.

So we are just wondering why the local clinics in Ghana, including the SHC, are so underfunded. In order to get the answer I interviewed a midwife Habib Augustina, who works for Banko Health Center.

According to Augustina, the health services in Ghana can be classified by two main bodies: governmental service, namely GHS (Ghana Health Service) and private services such as CHARG (Christian Health Association of Ghana). The GHS covers the entire region of Ghana from remote areas to larger cities, while CHARG is one of the private healthcare organizations that mainly provides medical services in urban areas (not in rural areas). Actually most people in Ghana prefer the medical services by CHARG.

Augustina explains that one of the reasons why almost all regional hospitals in Ghana are in financial trouble is: “Each medical institution must raise funds to operate by itself.”

As a matter of fact, GHS cannot afford each medical institution (from local clinics to larger hospitals in cities) to provide medical funds and even basic medical supplies. In addition, large hospitals in urban areas can set up administrative managers and entrust them with hospital management, while local clinics do not have the financial resources to put the managers in their clinics. In other words, regional hospitals need to prepare medical supplies through their own IGF (internal generated fund). In many local hospitals, IGF is covered by ‘’patient consulting and treatment fees’’.

Augustina points out that more patients can access hospitals in urban areas and IGFs can be secured more easily than in rural areas. However, for clinics in poor local areas, such as the SHC, it is difficult to increase the cost of treating patients because their patients are all poor and some people suffers from the poverty. Because of this, the medical services in local clinics are declining, which causes a widening gap between medical services in urban and rural hospitals in Ghana.