Transforming Rural Community Lives by Increasing Access to Quality Hea

There are equity gaps in access to quality health care, especially for those living in rural communities. Quality of healthcare is driven by availability of skilled health workers and sufficient infrastructure and technology. These resources are not equitably distributed in Ghana. The numbers and densities of health workers are unevenly distributed throughout Ghana, with a majority of doctors and university-trained nurses serving in the two major metropolitan areas of Accra and Kumasi, and inadequate numbers of health staff in remote and rural districts according to a recent World Bank publication. The health worker density for Ghana is 1.93 per 1000 population. Though high compared with other African countries with similar incomes, only 60% are clinical staff. The densities for some clinical staff are: Professional Nurse – 3.1 per 10,000 people; Midwives – 1.5 per 10,000 people; Medical Officer – 6 per 100,000 people; Pharmacist – 2 per 100,000 people; Specialist – 2 per 100,000 people; Community Health Nurse – 2.1 per 10,000 people; Health Assistants/Enrolled Nurse – 2.9 per 10,000 people. In terms of infrastructure, some rural clinics do not even have sufficient space and equipment for a woman to go through delivery without the challenge of complications. Laboratories to do basic tests in order to confirm diagnosis are not available in many rural communities. Some of the rural clinics are in places where they are not connected to the national electricity and no potable water is available. So they depend on rainfall for water to use in the clinic. Lack of access to quality healthcare affects the quality of living of the people in rural areas, which leads to increasing number of physical and mental unhealthy days, affecting the efforts to move them out of poverty and unto paths of self sustainability.