The government has been entreated to urgently institute a dedicated funding mechanism for public health emergencies amidst recurrent disease outbreaks and dwindling donor support.
Discussants at a national dialogue on public health emergency financing in Accra yesterday, observed that while disease outbreaks were inevitable, a funding pool in place could aid effective response and management strategies.
In his remark, Stephen Atasige, the in-country Coordinator for the Prevent Epidemics project implemented by SENDGhana, a non-governmental organisation, said the recent withdrawal of the United States (US) aid to health interventions coupled with Ghana's multiple disease burden could pose grave impact if proactive measures are not taken in establishing a fund. "This is an opportunity for us to begin to get more proactive about mobilising domestic resources and this has to be intentional.
There has to be some policy in place to ensure that we are setting up that funding mechanism in the form of a fund that will cater for our public health emergency preparedness and response efforts so that we are able to withstand the shocks that come with these emergencies when they occur," he explained.
