The Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has noted that the digitization drive embarked on by the government has improved efficiency in healthcare delivery in Ghana.
According to him, before the government embark on the systematic digitization of medical records at the public health facilities, all records and documents were paper-based.
He said the process of locating patients’ files was cumbersome and documents sometimes were misplaced or misfiled.
”This caused delays and inefficiencies in the delivery of health services and the reluctance of some sick people to visit public health facilities,” he said.
On the issue of medical drones, he stated that ”Ghana was the second country in Africa (after Rwanda) to implement the delivery of medical supplies to remote areas through drones, with four Distribution Centres (DC) in Omenako, Mpanya, Vobsi, and Sefwi Wiawso.
He disclosed that’ ‘Two additional centers will become operational in December this year at Anum in the Eastern region (to cover all of the Afram Plains and 90% of the Volta region) and Kete-Krachi in the Oti region to cover all districts in the Oti Region, 3 districts in the Bono East Region (Pru East District, Sene East District, Sene West District) and North East Gonja District of the Savannah Region. The next two distribution centers will be located in Funsi (Upper West) and Kintampo (Bono) in 2022. This will bring Zipline coverage to virtually the whole of Ghana.”
Read what he said on Digitization and Health Below
HOW IS DIGITIZATION IMPROVING THE EFFICIENCY OF HEALTHCARE DELIVERY?
Digitization of Hospitals and Medical Records: Before Government commenced its systematic digitization of medical records at the public health facilities, all records and documents were paper-based. The process of locating patients’ files was cumbersome and documents sometimes were misplaced or misfiled. This caused delays and inefficiencies in the delivery of health services and reluctance of some sick people to visit public health facilities.
This effort has increased efficiency, effectiveness and productivity in service delivery by our health facilities, eliminating the need for queues and delays and also increasing access to health care by those who need the services most. Henceforth, the medical records and history of patients will be gathered under a single digital database which can be accessed by any networked hospital when patients visit.
We have also embarked on the connection of health facilities under the Ghana Health Service (GHS) on to one digital platform. So far, all teaching hospitals and all regional hospitals have been connected and can talk to each other. Thirty-six health facilities in the Central region have also been connected to the digital platform in a pilot scheme.
So now if you are referred from a hospital like Tamale Teaching Hospital to Korle-bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, you do not need to carry a folder… all your records will be seen and monitored by the doctor in Korle Bu when you arrive. Patients will have only one digital folder wherever they go.
National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA): Additionally, digitizing the operations of the NHIA has helped reduce fraudulent claims. The renewal of all national health insurance registrations used to take place at the various NHIA district offices. This led to backlogs and long queues. In some instances people slept for days at some district offices. These delays hampered the operations and limited the revenue streams of the NHIA.
Following digitization, renewal of health insurance registration via mobile phone (*929#) has eliminated these bottlenecks and also increased access to health care by those who need the services most. This has led to an increase in renewals by 70% while new registrations have increased by 41.4% per annum.
Medical Drones
Hospitals and clinics in remote and largely rural communities have a difficult time getting medical supplies especially in times of emergencies involving, for example snake bites, child-birth, blood supplies, floods, etc. Many lives are needlessly lost because the hospitals are unable to access critically needed supplies on time. To address this problem, Ghana opted to partner Zipline, the world’s largest automated on-demand delivery service for medical supplies.
Ghana was the second country in Africa (after Rwanda) to implement the delivery of medical supplies to remote areas through drones, with four Distribution Centres (DC) in Omenako, Mpanya, Vobsi, and Sefwi Wiawso. Two additional centers will become operational in December this year at Anum in the Eastern region (to cover all of the Afram Plains and 90% of the Volta region) and Kete-Krachi in the Oti region to cover all districts in the Oti Region, 3 districts in the Bono East Region (Pru East District , Sene East District , Sene West District) and North East Gonja District of the Savannah Region. The next two distribution centers will be located in Funsi (Upper West) and Kintampo (Bono) in 2022. This will bring Zipline coverage to virtually the whole of Ghana.
It is important to note that Ghana currently has the largest medical drone delivery service in the world! What is even more impressive is that the drone centers are 100% manned by young talented Ghanaians.
- As at September 2021,
o Each drone center has an average of 100 flights a day to deliver medicines and blood.
o Drones have delivered 3 million doses of routine vaccines to rural areas since 2020
o 130,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines were delivered to rural Ghana
o Delivery of Covid samples for testing. - Many lives have been saved as a result of the medical drones. In addition, the Ghana Health Service has made significant financial savings as a result of the Zipline drone delivery program which has reduced theft in medical stores. Interestingly, the US government has only recently contracted Zipline to also start the delivery of medical supplies by drones in the United States after Rwanda and Ghana took the lead.
Leveraging on the National Digital Property Address System, Zipline is also set to begin the delivery of medicines to homes by the end of the year for bedridden patients who may be unable to leave home or to homes that may be cut-off by floods for example or in emergencies. This will be the first such home delivery by drones of medical supplies in the world.
E-Pharmacy-Digitization of Pharmacies in Ghana: Patients or people generally face difficulties when trying to find medicines in pharmacies. They have no way of knowing which pharmacies have the medicines. They could go to five pharmacies before getting lucky. Sometimes patients are directed to go to specific pharmacies to buy the drug, denying them any advantage there might be of choosing from a lower-priced shop. People also don’t know what the prices of the drugs are at different pharmacies and tend in their time of vulnerability to just buy at the prices offered when they find the drug. It is also difficult to tell whether the drugs are genuine or fake. There is also the problem of drug abuse with prescription drugs like Tramadol.
To address these problems, in 2019, I challenged the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana to digitize the operations of pharmacies in Ghana. Following this and working with my office, the Pharmacy Council in collaboration with the private sector has completed work on a digital platform for all pharmacies in Ghana and a pilot of 45 pharmacies is currently ongoing.
Basically, the digital E-Pharmacy platform will offer the opportunity to everyone through a mobile phone to upload your prescriptions and find out which pharmacies near you have the drugs. Secondly, you can compare the prices for the same drug offered by different prices so that you can buy from the lowest priced pharmacies.
You will also be able to order the drug and pay for it on the phone through mobile money or GhQR (Scan and Pay), etc. The medicines are then delivered to the customers at home through a courier service.
The E-Pharmacy will enable Ghana address the issue of drug abuse. Those prescribed controlled drugs like Tramadol for example will only be given a one-time CODE sent via SMS (once the prescription is uploaded) to use at the pharmacy. The e-pharmacy platform will also check fake or counterfeit drugs because the platform will be linked to the FDA which will monitor the batch numbers of all products real time. Any drug for which the FDA does not have a batch number will be classified as fake.
The E-Pharmacy is scheduled to be launched before the end of the year. This will make Ghana the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to have a national scale E-Pharmacy and one of only a few countries in the world with a national scale E-pharmacy. I would like to thank the Pharmacy Council and the Ghanaian private partners for being very proactive and for tolerating my hounding.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
