Ghana medical and Nigeria medical system
Medical systems help doctors and nurses diagnose and treat patients. Hospitals and clinics rely extensively on computer technology to examine patients, cure disease, advance the science of medicine, and conduct the business of healthcare. It is hard for most people to understand what a health system is. Many people have only experienced one part of the system (when they had to buy insurance, or go see a doctor when sick) while some live in countries where no real functional system exists.
A medical System, that is a good one, is much more. It is how a nation organizes itself to protect and fulfill the right to health of every citizen. It includes providing them with public health services and medical care services, some of these services are more visible and understood than others. For example, the surveillance of a number of
and non-communicable conditions that are most prevalent in a country is an important public health service that citizens usually are not aware of. Most healthcare providers know about it because they have to report to the surveillance system and get reports on the distribution of various diseases and their frequency, alerting them of a possible epidemic. Most people are aware of the medical services the community needs, if they have received the right health education. For example, if health education is successful, it will be known that pregnant women need to have at least 4 antenatal visits; children need to have a number of vaccines in their first year of life; and one should know to get tested for certain diseases in order to detect them early and get treatment, such as HIV/AIDS, diabetes, breast or prostate cancer. It is hard to put public health and medical care services together as part of the health system. You see, a health system is managed through a number of programs that include the public health and medical care services required to prevent, diagnose and treat the conditions prevalent in a country. Programs are managed by professionals in the Ministry or Department of Health in that country and implemented through a number of professionals working in public and private hospitals and clinics. Programs are designed using the latest scientific evidence to ensure people have access to the best quality of care possible.
So, what is a good medical system? A good system is one that organized in a way to ensure timely access to the highest attainable standard of care to all its citizens; one that has the right programs managed by competent professionals; one in which clinics provide preventive and curative care for the most common conditions, i.e. primary health care in facilities or in the community where people live. All this is done in accordance with the respective program norms and standards. A good system is one where hospitals to which patients are referred, deliver secondary or tertiary level of care as defined in the country’s programs. It is simple, but difficult because most countries lack well designed programs or the management capacity to implement them making the best of all the resources they have and they do not have a plan to get there. That is what I was talking about this week in Johannesburg to a group of international development colleagues. I will share their response next week. What do you think a good health system is?
Nigeria medical system versus Ghana medical system
Ghana medical system
The hospitals and emergency services available in Ghana do not meet the Western standards. The availability of healthcare institutions and professionals is limited while long distances traveling for healthcare is not affordable. The healthcare cost and expenditures related to prevention and treatment of diseases are rising. The Ghanaian government has increased expenditure for availability of better healthcare resources and infrastructure. The government has also set up the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), a healthcare coverage for Ghanaian population which is responsible for decrease in deaths and rise in patient number. The tailored services of the NHIS cover treatments for communicable and non-communicable diseases like malaria, diabetes, respiratory diseases, hypertension and other widespread ailments. This scheme is available to low-income employees with flexible premium rates. Government and non-government funded clinics, hospitals and healthcare centers are set up that play a vital role in providing medical assistance to the Ghanaian population. Anti-malarial, anti-viral and other medicine to ensure and reduce the risk of infections is available throughout the country. To avoid travellers disease, immunizations and vaccination is made important. Along with obligatory yellow fever vaccination, immunizations are highly recommended for Hepatitis A and B, Typhoid, Polio, Meningitis, Rabies, etc. The necessity to increase access to healthcare services and ensure sustainable financing arrangements to the poor is recognised. Improvement in quality and access to maternal, neonatal, child and adolescent health services has increased. Ways of prevention and control of communicable and non-communicable diseases to promote healthy lifestyles has been intensified. The challenges faced by Ghana healthcare system include poor hygiene and sanitation, inadequate financial health investments or limited workforce and facilities. Establishing health institutions and insurance schemes, increasing workforce, improving hygiene and treatment conditions can ameliorate the challenges faced. Implementation of policies in maternal health, child, adolescent and other healthcare reforms can provide better health outcomes. This can be achieved by improving treatment, prevention and detection of diseases; strengthening healthcare diseases surveillance system and workforce; initiating research and development of new healthcare interventions; increasing public awareness and screening programmes can also be beneficial.
Nigeria medical system
Nigerian health care has suffered several down-falls. Despite Nigeria’s strategic position in Africa, the country is greatly underserved in the health care sphere. Health facilities (health centers, personnel, and medical equipment) are inadequate in this country, especially in rural areas. While various reforms have been put forward by the Nigerian government to address the wide ranging issues in the health care system, they are yet to be implemented at the state and local government area levels. According to the 2009 communiquι of the Nigerian national health conference, health care system remains weak as evidenced by lack of coordination, fragmentation of services, dearth of resources, including drug and supplies, inadequate and decaying infrastructure, inequity in resource distribution, and access to care and very deplorable quality of care. The communiquι further outlined the lack of clarity of roles and responsibilities among the different levels of government to have compounded the situation. Problems in the health care system of any country abound to a certain extent. Although health has the potential to attract considerable political attention, the amount of attention it actually receives varies from place to place. In their commentary of the 3T’s road map to transform US health care, Denise Dougherty and Patrick H. Conway rightly stated a step by step transformation of the US healthcare system from 1T →2T →3T which is required to create and sustain an information-rich and patient-focused health care system that reliably delivers high-quality care. Provision of timely information aimed at combating possible health menace among many other things is an important function of public health. Hence, inadequate tracking techniques in the public health sector can lead to huge health insecurity, and hence endanger national security, etc.
For decades ago, communicable diseases outbreak was a threat not only to lives of individuals but also national security. Today it is possible to track outbreaks of diseases and step up medical treatment and preventive measures even before it spreads over a large populace. Medical and epidemiological surveillance, besides adequate health care delivery, are essential functions of public health agencies whose mandate is to protect the public from major health threats, including communicable diseases outbreak, disaster outbreak, and bioterrorism. To avoid the various threats and communication lapses to strengthen the health workforce planning, management, and training which can have a positive effect on the health sector performance, one requires timely and accurate medical information from a wide range of sources. Nigeria patients and healthcare services, Nigeria as one of the LMICs commonly experience or face dual health burden from Communicable disease such as Tuberculosis, Hepatitis B, Influenza, HIV/AIDS, these are highly infectious diseases, And Non-communicable disease (non-infectious) diseases. Nigeria’s health care system faces notable challenges; poor healthcare infrastructures, lack or inadequate funding, and poor policymaking and implementation which leads to underinvestment in the healthcare system. These challenges among others in the Nigerian healthcare system contribute to failure in the healthcare system . Healthcare provision in Nigeria is a concurrent responsibility of the three tiers of government in the country. Private providers of healthcare have a visible role to play in health care delivery. The use of traditional medicine (TM) and complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) has increased significantly over the past few years. Healthcare delivery in Nigeria has experienced progressive deterioration as a result of weakened political will on the part of successive governments to effectively solve a number of problems that have long existed in the sector over many years. This directly impacts the productivity of citizens and Nigeria’s economic growth by extension. Over half of Nigeria’s population live on less than $1.90 a day (‘Poverty Head-count’), making them one of the poorest populations in the world. As of February 2018, the country was ranked 187 out of 191 countries in the world in assessing the level of compliance with the Universal Health Coverage (UHC), as very little of the populace are health insured, whereas even government provision for health is insignificant. Out-of-pocket payments for health causes households to incur huge expenditure. Private expenditure on health as a percentage of total health expenditure is 74.85%.
The implication of this is that government expenditure for health is only 25.15 percent of all the money spent on health all across the nation. Of the percentage spent on health by the citizens (74.85%), about 70% is spent as out-of-pocket expenditure to pay for access to health services in both government and private facilities. Most of the remaining money spent by citizens on their health is spent on procuring ‘alternatives’ which cost a lot. Nigeria has better health personnel than most other African countries. However, considering its size and population, there are fewer health workers per unit population than are required to provide effective health services to the entire nation. Sadly, the most commonly advertised reason is the ‘brain drain’ of health professionals to other countries, especially in Europe and American
Healthcare in Ghana has taken many shapes throughout the country’s history. In the precolonial period traditional village priests, clerics, and herbalists were the primary caregivers, offering advice. The use of traditional healers persists mostly in rural regions of Ghana. The post-colonial period marks the beginning of government intervention on behalf of healthcare through a variety of policies on different government regimes. These policies culminate in the implementation of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). The NHIS currently serves people in both the formal and informal employment sectors and seeks to increase access to healthcare for all Ghanaians.
Frequently ask question
So why is Nigeria’s health service in such a precarious state?
There is a toxic mix of problems including inaccessibility of quality health care, poor hygiene, corruption, malnutrition, lack of access to safe drinking water, poor health infrastructure, fake drugs, insufficient financial investment, and lack of sufficient health personnel. Government’s performance in the health sector has been abysmal. Investment in infrastructure has been poor, and meager remuneration for health workers has created a massive brain drain to the US and Europe. The annual budget of the government for the health sector is 4.17% of the total national budget, which is equivalent to only $5 per person per year! Hardly a year passes without a major national strike by nurses, doctors, or health consultants. The major reasons for these strikes are poor salaries and lack of government investment in the health sector. Unfortunately, many Nigerians cannot afford private hospitals; they are simply too expensive. Since financing is a major problem for patients, one would think that management of the National Health Scheme (NHS) through the Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) would help people secure better quality health care. But corruption has crushed this opportunity and made quality medical care inaccessible for people who contributed to the system. The health sector – like other key sectors in the country – has failed largely due to inept leadership. It is such a shame that despite the huge talents of Nigerians, which are on display in health sectors all over the world, our own health system is failing. Donor countries and multilateral organizations are aware of these challenges, but there’s little they can do to improve the situation.
What is the solution?
I believe that Nigeria’s policymakers and health professionals – including the Nigerian diaspora – need to come together and create a long-term blueprint for the sector. This should include a strategy for success in the next 25-35 years with timelines and key performance indicators. Creating this blueprint, and then making it a reality, is the only way to make meaningful improvements in the health of Nigerians.
What is the Health Problems in Ghana
There are several unaddressed health problems that pose serious risks to the Ghanaian population such as malaria ,HIV, tetanus, chickenpox, schistosomiasis, measles, anthrax, cholera, typhoid, tuberculosis, several kinds of pneumonia, infectious hepatitis,yellow fever, dysentery, venereal diseases and poliomyelitis. HIV/AIDS are widespread and dangerous in Ghana, with the rising rate of infection and deaths whileMalaria transferred by mosquito bite, has the highest mortality rate. The communicable diseases prevalent in Ghana are malaria, HIV/AIDs, diarrhoea and tuberculosis while increasing incidence of non-communicable diseases include cancers, cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, chronic respiratory disease and others. Ghanaians are estimated to die from lifestyle and chronic diseases. Womens health problems in Ghana are related to nutrition, reproductive health and family planning that are critical for national development. Ghana has fallen short in preventing maternal, infant or child mortality that has been found worsening over the past few years.
conclusion
The Nigerian and Ghana medical and healthcare system is poorly developed. No adequate and functional surveillance systems are developed. To achieve success in health care in this modern era, a system well grounded in routine surveillance and medical intelligence as the backbone of the health sector is necessary, besides adequate management coupled with strong leadership principles. Some low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) have been able to provide social and financial risk protection schemes for poor and vulnerable populations as a matter of the human right to health. Therefore, there is a need to provide social health protection schemes targeted at these groups in Nigeria. The poor and vulnerable populations should not become impoverished because of failure to obtain much needed health care services. Governments must reduce out of pocket payments for health care services by households through the adoption of a tax financed non-contributory UHC scheme. Expenditure in Ghana towards healthcare resources has increased in the last two decades to improve public health. Much still needs to be done. Public health is an ongoing process and continuous improvement is an ongoing goal. The numerous and serious healthcare problems are due to poor health infrastructure, inadequate education, hygiene and sanitation as well as extreme poverty and hunger. Therefore strategies and solutions should be put in place to eradicate the adverse medical problems in Nigeria and Ghana to meeting up the international standard.
Hope this was helpful, for more update contact us at Rovich Medical Services