Access to basic health care improves

Saturday, September 27, 2008 (The Mirror Pg 34)

From Rebecca Kwei, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Research using Demographic Surveillance System (DSS) sites has improved access to basic health care in Ghana, Dr Cornelius Debpuur, a Research Fellow at the Navrongo Health Research Centre has said.
According to him, results of successful trials carried out at these sites have been translated into policies of health reforms in the country.
Dr Debpuur said this when he made a presentation on  "Contribution of DSS to Promoting Health for All in Ghana” at the 8th Annual General and Scientific Meeting of the Indepth Network in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. It is on the theme ‘Indepth @ 10: From Knowledge Generation to Improved Health Policy and Practice’. More than 200 participants comprising scientists, researchers, young scientists and funders are taking part in the conference.
Citing an example of how DSS had contributed to improved healthcare delivery in Ghana, he said results of a trial known as Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) which was launched in 1993 to identify ways to improve access to health care in rural communities in the Kassena-Nankana District by the Navrongo Health Research Centre were so impressive that the Navrongo system was seen as a national model for community-based health care.
The results of the trial showed an increase in service coverage, reduction in fertility by one birth and reduction in child mortality by 40 per cent in the district.
In 1999, the Ministry of Health adopted the Navrongo model and launched the CHPS initiative as a national  policy.
Additionally, he said, the Vitamin A Supplementation Trial in the Kassena-Nankana District showed that the vitamin supplementation reduced child mortality by 20 per cent while the Insecticide Treated Bednet (ITN) trial also indicated a reduction in child mortality by 17 per cent in the same district.
Dr  Debpuur said the DSS sites, apart from guiding policy makers, also helped in generating evidence of what worked in promoting health care and building local capacity for research and health delivery.
He noted that there was also direct investment in health and development of catchment populations and facilitating development of evidence-based health programmes and policies.
 Indepth Network is an independent organisation that works to provide health, social and demographic data and research. Currently, the network has 37 community-based Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS) sites in 19 countries in Africa, Asia, Oceania and Central America.  In Ghana the sites are located at Dodowa, Kintampo and Navrongo.