In the final analysis, primary healthcare would remain the ultimate form of healthcare with a lot of benefits for individuals and the nation as a whole. It enables an efficient and effective healthcare delivery even in the secondary healthcare system because health problems are detected early and that makes treatment easier and less expensive.
Primary healthcare ensures efficient healthcare delivery by cutting short long period of hospitalization. Early detection and treatment of ill-health prevents admission of easy-to-treat health conditions.
It effectively improves life expectancy of the citizens, reduces morbidity and mortality rate in a country.
Primary healthcare promotes equal/equitable access and distribution of healthcare delivery. This is possible because it is easier and cheaper to access by both the rich and the poor; that cannot always be the case for secondary healthcare services.
I have seen many patients who were left with no choice but go home against medical advice in the most helpless stage of disease conditions; simply because they cannot afford the huge cost of treatment. Others too are left to die due to lack of fund to have the right but expensive treatment.
Again, primary healthcare makes equity in healthcare delivery possible. For example, it takes the use of simple medical tools like glucometer and BP machine to monitor blood sugar and blood pressure regularly to help the management/prevention of Diabetes and Hypertension respectively.
Another example is this; if a rich man and a poor man get infected with malaria, both can spend less money to buy cheap same anti-malaria drug for cure and that can be done at the primary healthcare level.
However, if malaria treatment is not done on time and the infection progresses to a complicated stage called cerebral malaria, Secondary healthcare is now needed to deal with it. This is the point where the rich can afford the expensive treatment and the poor may not.
For a successful primary healthcare establishment, citizens in the labor force would maintain good health and not spend productive hours in health facilities trying to cure or manage all forms of preventable diseases, including chronic ones.
More citizens in good health means less money would be spent on secondary health care.
The four main levels of healthcare: the individual patient, the care team, the organization/institutions and political environment (Ferlie and Shortel (2001) must be empowered to work and synchronize their respective roles in order to achieve more effective and efficient healthcare system in the country.
On this note, I appeal to the relevant authorities in charge of national healthcare, stakeholders including the general public, opinion leaders, healthcare professionals and the media to bring into focus, broader discussions on this important subject of primary healthcare.
I suggest The Parliament of Ghana enact a law banning government officials from travelling to other countries for health treatment unless such treatment cannot be carried out in the Ghanaian health facilities. When this is done, politicians or our leaders will sit up and endeavor to put the healthcare system here in order.
Such law will limit how national leaders misuse tax payers’ money on needless travels for basic health treatment abroad because they know the system over there is better and more reliable.
If the health system is structured well, people from other nations could also travel to Ghana for their health needs.
If Ghana is to develop to the point desirable by all, one of the things not to toil with is the health of its citizens. As the saying goes, “a healthy nation is a prosperous nation”.
