Heart to Heart
The ICHA Blog
 |
Snippets of Early Impressions |
EUHC is not a local dish
The Elmina Urban Health Clinic is bigger than I imagined, but luckily so. Patients fill the open air waiting room and line up very early in the morning. Clinicians begin seeing patients shortly after 9 a.m. And although physically bigger, the facility is very basic in resources and equipment. There is a dispensary onsite that has basic medicines in limited quantities. Furthermore, malaria is prevalent in Elmina and surrounding communities. Consequently malaria consumes a lot of the time and resources of the health care staff. As a result, non-communicable diseases can find it hard to be a priority on a patient chart. But that is why the ICHA can have such a big impact here. To be here and to identify the practical constraints and opportunities has added the extra challenge of on-the-spot troubleshooting of draft frameworks to conform to the cultural and practical medical norms at the clinic. The opportunities more than offset the constraints and everyone is excited as our plans start to be implemented with the help of the local people. The staff has been incredibly welcoming and accommodating during our first week here. This is all the more remarkable given the huge patient load with which they are dealing.
A national health insurance program
Ghana started a national health insurance program a few years ago. It’s interesting to learn about the program and discuss its impact on people, particularly the poor, which are served at the clinic in Elmina. It’s also a timely conversation for those of us living in the US, as the topic is largely dominating the political landscape at home. From what I have gathered, Ghanaians between 18 and 60 can buy the national health insurance for 15 cedis (around 11 USD) per year.
Choose your competition
Although opponents in the US to a single government-run choice in national health care insurance, I was reminded that the tolerance for competition is also cultural… For example, mobile phones in Ghana typically carry two or three SIM cards, allowing the user to optimize service opportunities, but also, choose the service provider with the cheapest rates in an area of service when service areas overlap. To me, this sounds like a more competitive system than the one we use in the US and Canada in which a consumer is left with whatever service the provider offers after signing a service ‘contract’ (the cost of which to break said contract can cost easily 10-15 times what national health insurance costs for one year in Ghana). So it would seem different countries and cultures have different tolerance levels for market ‘competition’ depending on the product in question.
About ICHA
The International Cardiovascular Health Alliance (ICHA) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to promoting cardiovascular health in the developing world. ICHA works closely with local clinics and community organizations to provide knowledge and tools to prevent cardiovascular disease.
Contact us »
Comments
I’ve been following the ICHA blog and it sounds like you guys have a very cohesive team yet everyone is responsible for something very specific. It’s interesting for me to read about and also very inspiring. Reading about your experience speaks to my concept of community and it helps me to identify what makes different sizes (or scale) of communities work. When I was spending time at hospitals, both when Oma was admitted and then when Eva was in hospital, I’d spend a bit of time in my head and from a birdseye perspective I’d look down at the hospital and ask myself how this big building works; it’s like a bit of an ant hill but the activity has purpose and there are common threads that make big systems like this work. You are one of those common threads Bruce. You care, you understand, and you contribute to community well being by doing that. You are the essence of what makes a community a good place. It is people like you that take on leadership roles that make our world a better place to live. I’m so incredibly proud of you Bruce.
aim very happy for your comment, by the way the national health insurance is helping us a lot, cos not all us can pay cash and care, so i thank you for saying a very good comment about this, again i try to have your mail adders and then write to you and thank you for making me to know more about your people, my people of my community wear very happy for the talk and wish you to come again. hoping to hear from you sooner.
by nana eric
elmina.
Leave a comment