“Indeed, the rate at which this category of personnel are being produced, Ghana may need to sign agreements with less endowed countries to officially deploy some of our health professionals to assist improve their health systems,” he said in his last State of the Nation Address to Parliament on yesterday.

He stressed that the vision of his administration was to provide improved health facilities and trained health workers for every part of the country.

Delivered in a sombre and pensive mood for about 45 minutes, the President’s address touched on a number of areas including education, healthcare, social protection, water and sanitation, power and governance.

President Mahama said an increase in the number of trained professionals in the country had addressed the challenge of lack of personnel to man health facilities across the country.

Projects

He said the construction of new regional hospitals in Bolgatanga, Wa and Accra, as well as new district hospitals in some parts of the country, including new ones to be constructed in Wheta, Somanya, Buipe, Tolon and Sawla, had and would further advance his government’s policy of providing every district with a first class health facility to dramatically improve the health outcomes for tens of thousands of people.

He added that new polyclinics, health centres and Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compounds had also been expanded to help bring quality healthcare to the doorsteps of the people.

These developments, he said, had resulted in a phenomenal expansion in the utilisation of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). In 2015, the out-patient utilisation of NHIS stood at 29 million, up from nine million in 2008.

The NHIS on the whole had also been improved under his administration to ensure that people, including the vulnerable, had access to quality healthcare, President Mahama stated.

Social protection

In the area of social protection, the President said as a lower middle income country, income disparities between the rich and poor had widened. Therefore, to help cushion the poor and vulnerable, many social protection programmes were introduced.

President Mahama also reported that within the four years of his administration, the number of people benefitting from schemes such as the School Feeding Programme, the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) and the Eban card, had been expanded to cover majority of the poor and vulnerable population in the country.

“The School Feeding Programme is better managed today under the auspices of the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection and covers more than 1.5 million children. The LEAP programme is benefitting almost 150,000 households,” he added.

Again, the percentage of the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) meant for persons with disability had been increased by 50 per cent.