The Ghana Health Service in the Bolgatanga Municipality is piloting the Network of Practice (NoP) at the Sumbrungu and Sirigu Health Centers.
This initiative is designed to link various facilities, individuals and stakeholders in the health delivery chain to play their respective roles at the various levels from the highest to the lowest in a bid to improve access to quality care in a timely manner.
It is an approach that aims to enhance access to quality essential health care in Ghana by 2030, leveraging on improved coordination and resource sharing among health providers within a geographical area.
As part of the Network of Practice, the Ghana Health Service looks to address challenges such as poor referral systems and inadequate provider-payment mechanisms. The approach finds root in Primary Health Care Strategy and therefore centers on comprehensive, patient-centered care for common conditions.
Its goal is to enhance the capacity of health facilities to deliver quality services, reduce maternal and child mortality rates through targeted interventions, increasing awareness and adoption of preventive health practices across communities and encouraging knowledge- sharing and cooperation among health professionals, traditional leaders and community members.
The adoption of the Network of Practice serves as a major vehicle to helping in the attainment of Universal Health Coverage by 2030.
At the Sumbrungu Health Center, nearly 10 health facilities have been linked to the Sumbrungu East Health Center. These include CHPS Compounds, laboratories, Chemical shops and university clinic.
In the case of Sirigu, the Health Center, which is the the second in the region to witness the launch for the pilot, has 10 facilities and areas of concern linked to it. These comprise of CHPS Compounds, chemical shops traditional healers and bone setters and the Galamsey hub.
Speaking to the Media during the launch of the Network of Practice in Sumbrungu, Christiana Tibil, Physician Assistant in charge of the Sumbrungu East Sub-Municipality, noted that the Network of Practice is aimed at improving the quality of care, leveraging on collaboration.
She therefore called for collaboration from the community to the regional and national levels for the improvement of the facility to be rightly placed to provide the needed care.
“We have a mother center which is Sumbrungu Health Center, we have our CHPS Compounds, chemical shops, traditional healers and bone setters, faith based organizations and we want to have a network with them such that referrals to the mother facility and vice versa will be coordinated. The other facilities now serve as the spokes, and the health center as the hub. We will therefore need support to improve the facility and equip it to serve its purpose,” she noted.
In a similar vein, Raymond Adoganga, Physician Assistant and Sub-Municipal Leader for the Sherigu Sub-Municipal, noted that the Network of Practice has come to fit in with the health system that already existed.
According to him, the Network of Practice addresses a weak link at the health center level and other health chain service providers as he equally calls for communities to help improve infrastructure at the facility for improved care.
“This has come to fit in the existing health infrastructure and model that we’re already rendering except that there was a weak link that was at the sub-district level and they have identified this weak link and want to partner with all other stakeholders to address the challenges. With the launch of the Sherigu Network, we hope that resources will come and that the community will intervene in the provision of basic infrastructure,” he added.
Speaking on behalf of the Municipal Health Director, Tindan Louis, Clinical Care Coordinator, explained that the Network of Practice is not replacing the CHPS System, rather it is meant to enhance and strengthen the various levels to enhance care.
In a statement on behalf of the Regional Director of the Ghana Health Service, Bernard Anankor, Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer, Upper East Region, noted that the concept is to fast-tracking the achievement of Universal Health Coverage.
