Prioritize efforts at reducing healthcare inequalities – UNDP urges African countries

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has stressed the need for African countries to prioritize efforts at reducing health inequalities and improve access to quality healthcare for all.
It said although there had been significant progress in improving health outcomes, there were still challenges and vast inequalities in access to healthcare services.
Ms Belynda Amankwa, Programme Specialist for Health at UNDP Ghana Office, stated this in a statement to mark this year’s World Health Day.
She said though there had been significant progress in improving healthcare – thus, from the eradication of smallpox, to the development of life-saving vaccines and antiretroviral therapies, the world still faced significant health challenges and vast inequalities in access to healthcare services.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about 30 per cent of the global population do not have access to essential health services.
A quarter of the world’s population faces the risk of impoverishment due to healthcare spending, and a third of the world do not have access to lifesaving medicines.
Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic had derailed gains made to combat HIV, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
Here in Ghana, despite the significant progress made in healthcare delivery in recent years, challenges remained.
According to Ms. Amankwa, communicable and non-communicable diseases continued to pose significant threat to public health, and the quality of healthcare services remained variable across the country.
This year’s celebration was themed “Health for All”.
She said by prioritizing healthcare delivery, countries could ensure that everyone, regardless of his or her background or circumstances, could have an opportunity to lead a healthy and fulfilling life.
These actions, according to her, were critical as nations also worked towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Three and other health-related SDGs in the next seven years (2030).
“We must remember that time is of essence.
We cannot afford to leave anyone behind, and we must work together across sectors and borders to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to live a healthy life”.
She suggested that Ghana among other nations, invested in Universal Health Coverage (UHC) which guaranteed timely and equitable access to quality health services when and where people needed them, without financial hardship.
“Supporting the implementation of Ghana’s UHC roadmap and strengthening the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) will be a critical step to address the root causes of financial barriers to healthcare access to all persons living in Ghana”.
Again, she believed the use of Health Technology Assessments (HTA) for prioritization and effective resource allocation for Universal Health Coverage should also be prioritized.
Ms Amankwa said the UNDP had led Access and Delivery Partnership’s support for the institutionalization of Health Technology Assessment (HTA) within Ghana’s health system which was helping to prioritize and allocate resources for UHC for all.
She added that there was the need to embrace primary health care services, harness the power of digital technology as well as strengthening multi-sectorial action on health.