Private Health Sector Assessment in Ghana

Most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa confront serious health challenges; however, Ghana has done beer than many of its neighbors. Ghana's life expectancy at birth is 60 years (versus 53 for all of Sub-Saharan Africa), the infant mortality rate is 73 per thousand (versus 79), and the maternal mortality ratio is 562 per 100,000 (versus 832) (World Bank 2009b). Ghana has worked hard to achieve the gains it has made, and it has benefited from substantial assistance from external development partners. Ghana has separated policy making the Ministry of Health, (MOH) from provision Ghana Health Service (GHS) in the public sector and decentralized health service management to the district level. In 2004, Ghana instituted its National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to ease consumers' need to mobilize payment at the time of illness. The private health sector in Ghana is a large and important factor in the market for health-related goods and services. The size and configuration of private providers and their contribution to health sector outcomes. With beer information about the size, scope, distribution, and constraints of private actors, Ghana's public policy makers could engage more effectively with the private sector. Through dialogue and the use of regulatory mechanisms and other tools, public policy could influence the practices and development of the private role in health so that it beer serves national health goals and objectives. The research team employed a supply and demand approach to identify market, policy, and institutional failures or weaknesses that could be addressed through policy change and action. The specific analyses conducted included the following: secondary analysis of nationally representative household surveys in Ghana; mapping of the private health sector and short-form questionnaire with all formal health service providers public and private in Ghana; focus group discussions with a subset of private providers in the mapping sample; patient exit polls at a subset of facilities in the mapping sample; population focus groups with women and men in the mapped districts; and national-level key informant interviews.