The Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Samuel Kaba Akoriyea, has called for renewed commitment to the implementation of the Free Primary Health Care (FPHC) programme to ensure that essential healthcare services reach underserved communities.
Dr Akoriyea made the call at a Free Primary Health Care durbar held at Zuarungu in the Bolgatanga East District of the Upper East Region, where he highlighted the importance of bringing healthcare closer to people in deprived communities.
Drawing on his 18-year experience in Cuba, the GHS Director-General cited the country’s healthcare system and the legacy of its late leader, Fidel Castro, as examples of efforts to achieve universal access to healthcare.
He described access to healthcare as a fundamental right and said his experience in Cuba exposed him to a system where medical services were available to everyone.
“A place where healthcare is absolutely free. You can get a heart transplant, kidney transplant. You can get anything under health for free,” he said.
Dr Akoriyea said his exposure to the Cuban healthcare system had influenced his understanding of how universal healthcare could be pursued and linked those lessons to the development of Ghana’s Free Primary Health Care programme.
He noted that many Ghanaians who studied in Cuba returned with valuable experiences that could contribute to strengthening healthcare delivery in the country.
The GHS Director-General also reflected on previous efforts to take specialist healthcare services directly to underserved communities.
He said Ghana acquired its first mobile advanced medical units about 13 years ago to provide specialist services outside major health facilities.
Dr Akoriyea, a former Director of the Institutional Care Division of the GHS, said he was given responsibility for managing the mobile units until 2016.
“One of the things that happened was that we started in Accra and then we went to the regions,” he recalled.
He recounted a visit to the Western Region during which President John Dramani Mahama encouraged health authorities to take healthcare services directly to communities instead of waiting for residents to travel long distances to access medical care.
“At that time we were taking the specialized services to the people,” he said.
Dr Akoriyea reaffirmed his commitment to ensuring that the Free Primary Health Care programme moves beyond policy to practical implementation.
“I have been silently entrusted to lead this whole issue of implementing practically what we call the Free Primary Health Care,” he said.
He stressed the need for sustained efforts to expand access to essential healthcare services, particularly for people living in deprived and underserved communities.
