The Ministry of Health (MoH) has launched the National Surgical, Obstetric, and Anaesthesia Plan (NSOAP) aimed at improving surgical care across the country.
The plan according to authorities is to ensure that everyone in the country has fair access to critical surgical, obstetric, trauma, and anaesthesia services and also foster a healthier population, which is essential for advancing national development.
Delivering a speech in Accra on behalf of the Minister for Health, Dr. Okoe-Boye, the Deputy Minister for Health, Hon. Alexander Akwasi Acquah, emphasized the importance of Surgical, Obstetric, Trauma, and Anaesthesia (SOTA) services as indispensable components of national health systems.
He mentioned that there have been global calls for countries to develop comprehensive plans to address the gaps in quality and access to these crucial healthcare services.
Additionally, the plan seeks to provide strategic objectives, interventions, activities and indicators relating to the six domains of Infrastructure, Workforce, Service Delivery, Financing, Information Management as well as Governance and Leadership.
Dr. Okoe Boye also indicated that the plan which will serve as the blueprint for SOTA services in the country for the next five years (2025 to 2029) requires multi-stakeholder collaboration, including Public Private Partnerships and strong coordination at all levels for an effective implementation of the policy.
Ghana joins a number of other African countries including Ethiopia, Rwanda, Zambia, Tanzania and Nigeria to launch the plan.