ASSESSING PRIVATE AND GOVERNMENT PARTICIPATION IN HEALTH SERVICE DELIVERY AT ABOKOBI IN THE GA EAST MUNICIPAL ASSEMBLY

ABSTRACT Accessibility is very critical to health service delivery. It includes financial, geographical and cultural accessibility. These factors inform the utilization of health services. The importance of accessibility and utilization of health services have been established in various studies globally. Yet in most developing countries and Ghana for that matter, accessibility to health care is limited in one way or the other. In Ghana, the implementation of the National Health Insurance Scheme in 2005 increased accessibility. However, accessibility and utilization of health services still remain a challenge for the country. This study seeks to explore how accessible health care is at Abokobi in the Ga East Municipality and to what extent the service is used. The study design was a cross sectional survey using both quantitative and qualitative data with the use Questionnaires and in-depth interviews respectively. The target population were health service providers on one hand and the residents of Abokobi on the other hand. A purposive sampling was employed to sample the health service providers and stratified sampling was used to sample the respondents. The researcher collected all quantitative data with the help of one trained assistant. In depth interviews were conducted by the researcher only. The taped interviews were transcribed and the resulting texts analysed by using thematic analysis. The study revealed that limited public facilities, inadequate health personnel like doctors, midwives and pharmacist at the Abokobi health center were major factors hindering accessibility and utilization of health service delivery. The income and educational status of respondents also affected accessibility and utilisation. Below are some recommendations for the study; an effective monitoring and supervision of the operations of health facilities; the improvement of the NHIS services at the health facilities in Abokobi; the improvement and upgrade of equipment and logistics to ultra-modern in the health centres ones and the improvement of performance indicators to help the DHMT define and measure progress towards achieving its goals.