SPEECH BY 2008 NPP PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE, NANA ADDO DANKWA AKUFO-ADDO ,MP, TO HEALTHCARE WORKERS ON MONDAY, 27TH OCTOBER, 2008 AT KOFORIDUA REGIONAL HOSPITAL
ON
“BUILDING A HEALTHY NATION”
INTRODUCTION
Good morning. I am grateful for the opportunity to address you this morning on this very important subject.
Health, quite appropriately, is considered by many to be “the first wealth”.
When I inaugurated the 2008 NPP Campaign Committee in Accra on the 13th of March, this year, I pledged that the next NPP government would focus on four central themes:
- first, the consolidation of our democracy
- second, the modernisation of our society
- third, the transformation of our economy
- fourth, our full involvement in the agenda of regional and continental integration.
- reducing paperwork and thus speeding up the processing of applications as well as payment to health providers for services rendered
- completing the ongoing production of a centralised data-base that will enhance portability and reduce unnecessary paperwork
- training the NHIS staff better to enhance professionalism and accountability both for the NHIS staff and the public
- using the leverage of the NHIS to drive improvements in quality in our healthcare institutions
- accelerating the construction of facilities and providing more equipment for services to increased population
- training and retaining more healthcare personnel. This will be done by building new training facilities and expanding existing ones, while encouraging private Universities and institutions to establish training facilities, including Medical Schools. This will be complemented by the provision of better pay, housing and rural allowances as well as retirement schemes for health professionals that will ensure that healthcare personnel retire with accommodation that they own free and clear.
- investing in garbage disposal and our sewerage systems and providing many more public toilets. To this end, we must seriously commit to finding an alternative to the current system of just throwing our plastic bags anywhere. Either we ban the use of plastic bags, like the Chinese have done, or we put in place a system for recycling them
- assisting educational and healthcare institutions to undertake waste processing that will transform their waste into energy. An example of this is the Nkawkaw Holy Family Hospital that does not spend money to dispose of its waste, but recycles it into energy. I see the day when hospitals like your own and many others can convert their own waste into energy
- enforcing laws on cleanliness by putting on our streets 20 thousand sanitary inspectors per year for the next five years
- launching an aggressive public education campaign, the “CLEAN GHANA INITIATIVE”,that will make Ghana the cleanest country in West Africa within the next five years
- negotiating more stringent protections for our environment with companies and enforcing our environmental laws, rules and regulations more vigorously.
- making sure that vehicles and drivers are consistently road-worthy, while enforcing the rules of the road
- working with stake-holders to educate the public about the use of seat-belts, drinking and driving, driving while tired etc
- building more accident centres in hospitals near major highways e.g. having an Accident Centre in the Winneba area
- training healthcare personnel in the basics of providing emergency care to accident victims. Fifth, link traditional medicine practitioners more to our formal system by
- promoting joint conferences with orthodox providers to promote understanding and collaboration
- using financial assistance, training in the basics of hygiene and emergency care as well as other benefits of certification to get them into the formal system. Sixth, strengthen with more resources, personnel and stronger laws, organisations charged with protecting the public, such as the Environmental Protection Agency, Road Safety Commission, Food and Drugs Board. Seventh, enhance public commitment to and support of health promotion by
- public education through media and schools
- continued sponsorship of exercise clubs with equipment and literature
- provision of more nutritious food through the School Feeding Program and enforcement of regulations that will discourage patronage of fast food and alcoholic establishments
- assist Churches to give the youth alternative activities and teachings to discourage anti-social activities. Eighth, committing 10% of our budget to healthcare within the next five years to give impetus to these programs. Ninth, promoting healthcare as a business by
- facilitating the involvement of private entities in all aspects of our healthcare system
- supporting the establishment of centres of excellence in healthcare that will provide care to the quarter of a billion people in West Africa as well as Africans on the wider continent and in the Diaspora
- supporting the manufacturing of health equipment and basic supplies such as cotton wool, gloves, and scissors for the West African market here in Ghana.
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