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Ghana is on the path of recovery and our medium term prospects of becoming an upper middle income country are brighter now than ever in the history of our country.”
The above was how President John Dramani Mahama on Tuesday night summed up his assessment of the development prospects facing the country, as he rendered account of what his government has been up to in pursuit of bettering the lot of the people.
The occasion was the ‘Accounting to the People Forum’ held at the State Banquet Hall in Accra to account for the stewardship of his administration, and said the developments, as captured in a book, ‘Accounting to the People’ “represents meaningful, measurable and veritable improvements in the lives of our people.”
He said “development occurs within space and time and so very often it’s not easy to comprehend that development is taking place because if you live in, say Chorkor, and there is a hospital being built in Nungua, you might not have the consciousness that healthcare is improving.
And so what I’ve tried to do with this book is to bring an overview of what we’ve been doing in the whole country over the period of our governance. Accounting to the people brings together in one space and volume, major highlights of what we have achieved so far as a government.”
He also wished Ghanaians Merry Christmas and Happy New Year in advance.
The above was how President John Dramani Mahama on Tuesday night summed up his assessment of the development prospects facing the country, as he rendered account of what his government has been up to in pursuit of bettering the lot of the people.
The occasion was the ‘Accounting to the People Forum’ held at the State Banquet Hall in Accra to account for the stewardship of his administration, and said the developments, as captured in a book, ‘Accounting to the People’ “represents meaningful, measurable and veritable improvements in the lives of our people.”
He said “development occurs within space and time and so very often it’s not easy to comprehend that development is taking place because if you live in, say Chorkor, and there is a hospital being built in Nungua, you might not have the consciousness that healthcare is improving.
And so what I’ve tried to do with this book is to bring an overview of what we’ve been doing in the whole country over the period of our governance. Accounting to the people brings together in one space and volume, major highlights of what we have achieved so far as a government.”
He also wished Ghanaians Merry Christmas and Happy New Year in advance.
Achievements
President Mahama observed that if there was any particular area that had enjoyed enormous investments, it should be in health infrastructure.
“The number of hospitals that we have built or are building, or are in various stages of construction, are phenomenal. From regional hospitals to district hospitals, to polyclinics, to specialized hospitals, there are so many of them,” he said, all in an effort to improve the quality of healthcare.
He said having operated the National Health Insurance Scheme for a while now, it would not make sense if one had the NHIS card but has no facility to visit for care. In such an instance, he said the cost of travelling long distances to access healthcare could be avoided if the facilities were close enough, adding also that by adding more infrastructure, healthcare has been brought to the doorstep of the people.
The president said work was ongoing on two teaching hospitals, four regional hospitals and 14 district hospitals and over 30 health centres.
He also said five additional polyclinics have been completed while 15 other polyclinics for the Eastern and Central regions have just been approved by Parliament.
President Mahama said 1,260 CHIPS Compound have been built across the country. The number of health training institutions have also been increased from 25 in 2005 to 95 in 2015 in order to train more qualified health personnel. Student intake into these training institutions also moved up from 12,000 to 23,000 over the same period.
On the NHIS, he said in 2008, utilization (number of visits made by patients holding NHIS cards) was 9.3 million. In 2014, the number went up to 29.6 million.
And so when people say that the national health insurance scheme has collapsed, he does not get it.
“We are treating far more people today than ever have been treated in history”, he said
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