– Ghana’s Minister for Health, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, on Wednesday said the country needs to invest at least 9.8 billion U.S. dollars in health professionals from now until 2030 to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of universal health coverage (UHC).
Akandoh said during the two-day national policy dialogue on health workforce in Ghana that the density of health workers in the public sector has nearly tripled, moving from 16.56 to 41.92 per 10,000 population between 2013 and 2022.
Despite this solid foundation to achieve the SDGs for UHC and other important health goals, the minister said the real challenge for Ghana lies in the deployment, equity, motivation, retention, and long-term sustainability of our health workforce.
With trained health professionals numbering nearly 300,000, the minister said only 172,000 were employed in the public sector and 3,000 in the private sector, leaving over 40 percent of the trained health workforce unemployed, although the health sector needs them.
Although over 40 percent of Ghana’s population reside in the rural areas, only 38 percent of the trained health force are located in these areas, said the minister.
“This geographical mismatch is a long-standing issue and demands fresh thinking, innovative deployment, and strategies,” Akandoh urged.
To meet Ghana’s health needs and achieve at least 80 percent coverage under UHC, we will need over 367,000 health workers, and that number could rise to nearly half a million by 2030, said the minister, adding that the current budgetary allocation to the sector cannot take care of the required number.
Moreover, the migration data shows that nearly two out of every three health workers are considering leaving the country, attributing the exodus to the low wages for health professionals in the country, added the minister.
“The analysis estimates that it would take around 9.8 billion dollars between now and 2030 to meet our workforce targets through both employment and training.
For that matter, Akandoh urged participants in the two-day policy dialogue to come out with well-thought-out strategies and solutions to the current impediments in the health sector and move Ghana towards achieving UHC by 2030.