Non-communicable diseases (NCDs), especially cardiovascular diseases, are a leading cause of death in sub-Saharan Africa. In Ghana, approximately half of the population suffers from hypertension. Less than a third of those who are ill have been diagnosed, and just 22 per cent of patients are receiving treatment. About half of all deaths (43 per cent) are due to NCDs. Increasingly, common complications related to the absence of diagnosis and treatment are also a factor. A similar picture can be seen for diabetes.
In response to the situation, in 2021 CHAG began the “Akomapa” (healthy heart) project. focuses on improving the diagnosis, control, and treatment of patients with hypertension and/or diabetes to minimise life-threatening complications and increase the quality of life in rural Ghana. The project aims to improve the local diagnosis and treatment of these diseases in 85 facilities in rural communities to achieve the broadest possible delivery of health care.
It concentrates on better and early diagnosis to prevent subsequent complications of the primary diseases. As at December 2021, the project had recruited nearly 8,000 clients with over 50% achieving good control. From January through to October 2022, the target is recruit 70,000 patients on the project and achieve good control for at least 50% of them.
When I returned to my facility after my first training. I met with my team at the facility level to solve some challenges such as low ANC attendance since it was established. So we had to sit up. We lobbied for new critical staff, held some community durbars to engage with the community. We then provided equipment needed for ANC services, ensured medicines supplies, directional sign boards, established ANC access points in the community. We engaged with the management to provide means of transportation such as motorbikes so staff can reach mothers who are very far away and could not afford. We have since recorded more than 16% increase at the ANC. All this have been possible through the training received from the CHAG/FCDO program.
I participated in the first QI training and after a few months we have been able to improve attendance at the OPD which was very low before the training. We did this through team work and engaging with our community. We have since seen some increase in attendance of about 15% which is a major improvement. All thanks to the CHAG/FCD training on the Quality Improvement, we are very grateful.
It has been beneficial attending the QI training. At my facility we realized hand washing/ hand hygiene was not being practiced well. So, we used strategies learnt to ensure that both the staff and client ensure that hand washing was always practiced; we trained our colleagues, and remained everyone, printed protocols and created more hand washing bases so it was easier to access them for both staff and clients. We also have a new tank to store water so there is no excuse for “no water”. We now have the inscription “No handwashing no entry”. We have assigned staff to ensure this is always done and always give feedback. Many lives definitely have been saved by this simple act of handwashing.