Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has indicated that Ghana will soon be running one of the most digitalised health-care systems in Africa with many digital interventions scheduled to be on stream nationwide by the end of 2024.
This, he said, has become possible because of the many digital initiatives introduced since 2017, as well as the infusion of digital technology into existing operations.
According to him, this has led to greater access to health-care services and also revolutionised health-care delivery in the country.
Vice President Bawumia stated these when he launched in Tamale on Monday, National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) “Active Month and its innovative digital application to bring access to healthcare services in the country to the “pockets” of Ghanaians.
The mobile application dubbed: ‘MyNHIS App’ has been a landmark initiative by the NHIA to enable people sit at the comfort of their homes to register to join the scheme.
The application will also enable members on the scheme to renew their membership and that of third parties, access frequently asked questions (FAQs), aid in location of all NHIS offices and link NHIS cards to their Ghana cards.
Mobile renewal system
Speaking on the theme: The Role of Digitalisation in Modern Health Care Delivery: Recounting Ghana’s ICT Journey in the Fourth Republic”, Vice President Bawumia said the government in 2019 supported Management of the NHIS to launch a mobile renewal system to enable members whose cards have expired to conveniently renew their cards, using mobile phones, without walking to the NHIS branch offices.
This digital innovation, he pointed out, has led to remarkable increase in the proportion of members who renew their membership annually, thereby improving population coverage of the scheme.
He indicated that at present, over 16 million people are active members of the scheme, representing 54% of the population, an increase from 40% in 2019.
Dr. Bawumia said out of this number, over 80% are old members who used the mobile application to renew their membership.
“The government of President Akufo-Addo since January 2017 has been at the forefront of providing improved public service delivery using digital solutions. One key area we have been pursuing aggressively is social and health services delivery to the population.
“The role of digital health solutions in our health-care sector cannot be overemphasised. Over the last few years, we have embarked on a digitalisation drive in the health sector as a response to the World Health Organization (WHO) call for member countries to implement digital health interventions in their health systems to improve access to care and well-being for their populations.
“The technology developer is currently engaging the National Health Insurance Authority on the technical and operational feasibility of the platform in the NHIS. We are also enrolling the top 100 pharmacies. The government is very keen on getting the platform fused into the NHIS operations by January next year. This will make Ghana the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to have a nationwide e-pharmacy.
“The government has also introduced flexibility through the Lightwave Health Management Information System (LHIMS) and other technological platforms to manage electronic medical records without the use of printed booklets of the patient’s folder and avoid the possibility of patients’ medical records getting lost.
“So far, 147 hospitals have been networked, including the teaching hospitals, such as Tamale, Cape Coast, Komfo Anokye, Ho and Korle-Bu, as well as many secondary and primary health facilities, making patient records available to all these facilities without the use of folders. By the end of next year, we will have networked about 80% of all hospitals, and by the end of the following year, we will complete the networking of 100% of all our hospitals. This will make us the first country in Africa and one of a few in the world to have such a nationwide system.
Medical drone services
Vice President Bawumia stated that Ghana’s medical drone delivery service is the largest in the world and saves many lives daily.
“The government’s introduction of the Zipline services in 2019 to improve medical supplies has expanded from one distribution hub to six hubs in the remote areas, making Ghana home to the world’s largest fleet of medical-delivery drones.
“Zipline drones have undertaken 278,936 flights since their inception, making over 12 million deliveries, comprising 8.63 million lifesaving medical products or medicines, about 1.9 million child immunisation vaccine consumables and over 1.9 million COVID-19 vaccines and PPEs. It has also made very significant savings for the nation, both in lives and resources,” Vice President Bawumia added.
