Health · Peter Amaane

Health professionals push for policy review to enhance service delivery

The Director of Technical Coordination at the Ministry of health, Dr. Hafez Adam, has encouraged leaders and managers in the health sector to create conducive conditions to improve the performance of health workers. This according to him, will help enhance quality healthcare delivery. He added that leadership is about setting standards, solving problems, supporting teams, encouraging innovation and taking responsibility for results. Speaking at the 7th Annual Nursing and Midwifery leaders and managers conference 2026 ongoing in Koforidua, the capital of the Eastern Region, he charged the leadership of nurses and midwifery to be more responsive to the needs of nurses and the communities they serve. 

The 7th Annual Nursing and Midwifery leaders and managers conference themed “Bridging Research, Policy and Practice in Nursing and Midwifery to Advance Free Primary Healthcare in Ghana,” brought together nursing and Midwifery leaders across the country, academia, traditional leaders, and nursing and midwifery students. 

The annual conference provides a platform for nursing and midwifery leaders to reflect on their progress, confront their challenges, share experiences, and knowledge and collectively shape the future of their profession and Ghana's health system.

In his address, the Director of technical coordination at the ministry of health, Dr. Alhaji Hafez Adam, emphasized the essential role nurses and midwives play as frontline professionals in Ghana's health system. 

He noted that their proximity with patients, families and communities gives them invaluable understanding into the realities on the ground including areas where healthcare policies and practices need to be reviewed. 

He called for stronger links between research, policy and practice, stressing the need to translate research findings into relevant policies and ensure that those policies lead to improved healthcare delivery. 

" Are our patients experiencing better quality of care? That is the question. We have made progress in expanding access, developing policies, training healthcare workers and strengthening health facilities. These achievements,yes we agree important but for the patients policies and strategies only have meaning when they translate into tangible improvements. This is where our work must beget. Not only by the policies we develop, or programmes we launch but by the difference those programmes and policies make in the lives of our patients" Mr. Adam indicated 

The New Juaben South Municipal Chief Executive, MCE, Ransford Owusu Boakye, reiterated that nurses and midwives are the heart of Ghana's healthcare delivery system. 

He said the theme calls for the need to close the gap between knowledge acquired through research and the decision made through policy and realities at health facilities and within communities.

" Through research we get a better understanding of the health needs of our population. We identify emerging challenges, assess effectiveness of interventions and develop new approaches to solving problems. However, research must not end with reports and academic publications but findings that influence policies, improve programs and change practices. " He noted. 

The Deputy minister for health, prof Grace Ayensu-Danquah explained, that primary care refers to health facilities such as Community-based Health Planning and Services, CHPS compound, health centres and polyclinics. 

She noted that non-communicable diseases, NCDs, account for about forty percent of mortality rate in Ghana, necessitating the introduction of the free primary healthcare. 

"We are realising that at least 43 percent of all mortalities in Ghana is from non-communicable diseases. I mean mainly high blood pressure and diabetes and then we have added cancers to the Mahamacares. At the primary care level those diabetes , high blood pressure and cancer is killing all of us. At least fifty percent of Ghanaians are dying from these non-communicable diseases." She stated. 

The conference will conclude with awards for health workers who have performed exceptionally towards the delivery of quality health care.