The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has put in place a 26-member implementation committee to coordinate the rollout of the Government’s Free Primary Health Care (FPHC) programme across 135 districts.
The committee is expected to provide technical and operational oversight of the initiative, identify implementation gaps and ensure that emerging challenges are addressed before they undermine the programme.
Director-General of the GHS, Dr Samuel Kaba Akoriyea, inaugurated the committee at Pantang and charged members to ensure that the programme remains on course as preparations intensify for its implementation.
The inauguration also saw the introduction of Dr Salamatu Attah Nantogma, Deputy Director of the Institute of Medical Excellence (IME) at the Policy, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Directorate (PPMED), as the new FPHC Programme Coordinator.
The committee will be convened by the Director of PPME, Dr Samuel Boakye Boateng, and will serve as the central coordinating body for the GHS’s role in delivering the programme.
Dr Akoriyea said the committee must be able to quickly identify gaps and determine whether they can be resolved internally or require escalation for further action.
“For the proper functioning of this programme, there is the need for a high-level implementation coordinating team. The team is to have oversight responsibility on the implementation so that if there are gaps, the team will decide whether to escalate them or handle them at their level,” he said.
He identified the training of national-level coordinators and engagement with development partners as immediate priorities ahead of the rollout.
The committee brings together directors and representatives from relevant GHS departments and divisions, alongside key partners including the World Health Organization (WHO), which has supported preparations for the programme.
Dr Akoriyea stressed that effective collaboration would be critical to ensuring that various primary healthcare interventions complement rather than duplicate one another.
“There is too much that we can do together,” he said, urging partners to work closely with GHS Headquarters to jointly plan activities and synchronise interventions.
He said stronger coordination would help prevent the duplication of programmes and ensure that limited resources are directed towards areas where they are most needed, particularly support for frontline health workers working under difficult conditions.
The GHS Director-General also encouraged the adoption of innovative approaches capable of strengthening the FPHC programme but cautioned that such solutions must be compatible with existing GHS systems.
He said interoperability would be essential to enable information generated by different interventions to be integrated and used effectively for planning, monitoring and decision-making.
To deepen the technical work, the GHS has established three operational sub-committees covering Finance and Logistics; Service Delivery; and ICT, Health Information and Research.
The sub-committees, comprising representatives from relevant GHS divisions and departments, will undertake detailed technical and operational assignments and submit their reports to the main implementation committee.
They will be chaired by the Deputy Director-General of the GHS.
As Programme Coordinator, Dr Nantogma will be responsible for bringing together the plans of the various technical divisions and departments and facilitating implementation activities at the national, regional and district levels.
Her duties will include following up on decisions taken by the Director-General and the implementation committee, as well as coordinating field visits, monitoring, supervision and technical support missions.
She will also consolidate reports from the regions and districts, monitor progress against agreed milestones and indicators, identify implementation bottlenecks and facilitate their resolution.
Dr Nantogma will maintain the programme’s implementation dashboard and prepare regular briefs for the Director-General and the committee.
She will also serve as Secretary to the committee and facilitate communication between the national and subnational implementation structures.
The establishment of the committee marks a key preparatory step by the Ghana Health Service towards the official rollout of the Free Primary Health Care programme, creating a central mechanism to coordinate implementation across the 135 districts.
