The Ghana Medical Trust Fund (GMTF) has intensified its nationwide stakeholder engagement campaign to raise awareness of its mandate, achievements, and interventions to improve access to specialised healthcare.
The campaign also seeks to educate the public on eligibility requirements and how to access support from the Fund, while mobilising partnerships to extend its reach to vulnerable patients.
The Administrator of the GMTF, Ms Adwoa Obuobia Darko-Opoku, announced this during a Greater Accra Regional Stakeholder Engagement on Thursday, emphasising the importance of ensuring that more Ghanaians understood the Fund’s work.
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She said the engagement aimed to explain the Fund’s mandate, share progress from its first year, and provide guidance on accessing its interventions.
Ms Darko-Opoku highlighted the burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), which she said accounted for a significant proportion of deaths and placed considerable financial pressure on affected families.
She noted that the Fund had donated medical equipment to referral hospitals to strengthen specialised healthcare delivery and improve their capacity to manage complex medical conditions.
“Our mandate is to address and to ensure cost-effective care and capacity to deliver,” she said.
The Administrator stressed that Greater Accra’s reputation as a region of economic opportunities should not obscure the difficulties families face in paying for specialised medical treatment.
“Even here in Greater Accra, families go through enormous difficulties trying to care for relatives suffering from non-communicable diseases,” she said.
She explained that the GMTF was established to bridge critical gaps in healthcare delivery through interventions involving medical equipment, financial support, infrastructure and other areas of specialised care.
Ms Darko-Opoku appealed to individuals, businesses and corporate organisations to support the Fund so it could reach more beneficiaries and help save lives.
The Greater Accra Regional Director of Health Services, Dr Robert Amesiya, urged Ghanaians to “jealously guard” the Fund, describing it as an important opportunity to strengthen the country’s healthcare system.
He said collective support is essential to ensuring that the Ghana Medical Trust Fund fulfils its mandate, particularly for people who might otherwise struggle to afford specialised treatment.
The Greater Accra Regional Minister, Linda Obenewaa Akweley Ocloo, commended President John Dramani Mahama for establishing the Fund and welcomed its nationwide sensitisation campaign.
She said public awareness was crucial to ensuring that the Fund’s interventions reached their intended beneficiaries.
Ms Ocloo also called for stronger collaboration between the GMTF and Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to prevent duplication of interventions and maximise the impact of available resources.
She assured the Fund of the Greater Accra Regional Coordinating Council’s support in strengthening collaboration across the region.
The Ga Mantse, His Royal Majesty King Nii Teiko Tsuru II, called for a healthcare system where poverty did not determine who received life-saving treatment.
He said no Ghanaian should be denied quality healthcare because of an inability to afford treatment, particularly as specialised medical services continued to impose significant financial burdens on families.
He described the establishment of the Ghana Medical Trust Fund as an important intervention for households struggling with the rising cost of specialised healthcare and urged stakeholders to ensure vulnerable people benefited from its support.
The Ga Mantse also encouraged the Fund to explore opportunities to strengthen maternal healthcare as part of broader efforts to improve healthcare delivery.
“The Fund must reach the people,” he said.
The Greater Accra engagement forms part of the GMTF’s nationwide regional sensitisation tour, which seeks to bring the Fund closer to communities, healthcare professionals, traditional authorities and other stakeholders while mobilising support for its mandate.