COVID-19, Health and Healthcare Services In Ghana

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has now literally been downgraded in Ghana, with most of the restriction protocols eased. Nevertheless, COVID-19 is still with us, and still needs to be treated with caution, even as newer variants are announced every now and then. Of uttermost importance is the trail of effects it brought to citizens’ health, and healthcare services the world over, including Ghana. Some of these effects will last for decades. Based on Ghana’s COVID-19 recovery and case-fatality rate, relative to those of other African countries and the world’s average COVID-19 related indicators, Ghana has successfully managed and treated the pandemic. Ghana was the first country internationally to receive vaccines from the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization’s (GAVI) COVAX facility, the COVID-19 vaccine drive initiative supported by the WHO and UNICEF, for African and other less developed countries. GoG planned to vaccinate all its adult population, estimated at 20 million, by the end of 2021, to generate herd immunity.

COVID-19 has had a strong negative psycho-social effect on several aspects of the livelihoods of citizens. Among others, this situation stemmed from the financial insecurities engineered by the pandemic, the fear of infection, deaths from it, and the fear of death. In Ghana, another contributory factor to the psycho-social stress and mental health burden unleashed by COVID-19 is the stigma and stigmatization, and the reduced social space associated with the infection, and its concomitant social restrictions. This is against the background of Ghana’s current mental healthcare services being at a very low ebb and with very low funding. Furthermore, Ghana and Africa have a reduced capacity for COVID-19 research.

As is the case globally, COVID-19 also highlighted the inequities in access to and distribution of healthcare infrastructure in the country. Locally, these are the usual dichotomies of the north-south, rural-urban, and Greater Accra Region versus the-rest-of-the-country divides. For instance, as at September 28, 2021, 10 regions in Ghana did not have any suitable COVID-19 accredited testing laboratories while 29 out of the 36 accredited laboratories with the capacity to test for COVID-19 (constituting 80.56%), were in the Greater Accra Region, mostly in wealthier enclaves of Accra.

GoG and the Ghana Health Service’s concentration on COVID-19 had a high opportunity cost in terms of financing, logistics for, and healthcare provision for other equally important diseases and healthcare needs such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, and maternal and child healthcare. Furthermore, research has shown that some citizens stopped seeking healthcare for essential services for fear of COVID-19 infection. Similarly, some elderly, very experienced healthcare personnel quit working to protect themselves. There was also a very high healthcare worker stress and psychosocial burden. These thwarted efforts to promote good health, led to worsened ailments and loss of lives which were not directly related to COVID-19, and may have long term effects on the healthcare space and citizens’ health in Ghana.

On a positive note, the pandemic occasioned the expansion of the healthcare infrastructure and services, and the much needed increase in the healthcare manpower in Ghana. The pandemic has also led to lessons on self-reliance in providing healthcare logistics, as well as increased voluntarism in providing healthcare support from citizens.

Given the massive negative impact of the pandemic on the mental health and psychological well-being of citizens, GoG, the Ghana Health Service, and allied agencies should step up mental health, clinical psychology, and psychosocial services to support citizens to cope with the fallout and the increased demand for mental and psycho-social healthcare related to the pandemic.

There is the need for pragmatic efforts to distribute healthcare infrastructure more evenly, regionally, and also across the rural-urban, north-south divides, particularly in the provision of suitable laboratories that can test for the pandemic, in order to more equitably and efficiently prevent infections and treat persons who get infected by COVID-19 nationwide. GoG should ensure that at least one well-resourced COVID-19 testing center/laboratory is built in each region to facilitate more timely testing, treatment and needed documentation, such as for external travel, in the wake of the pandemic’s geopolitics. Increased and continuous self-reliant in providing our healthcare supplies, including vaccines, is recommended.

There is the need for Ghana to be camera-ready for unavoidable future epidemics and pandemics. GoG and private partners should facilitate the intensification of scientific and social research on COVID-19 as well as other epidemics in Ghana. This should include the impact of the pandemic on healthcare workers.