Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #105740

Frank K. Nyonator, MD, MPH¹, Agyeman Badu Akosa, Prof, John K. Awoonor-Williams, MD, MPH³, James Phillips, PhD⁴, and Tanya C. Jones, MPA⁴. (1) Director, Policy, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Division, Ghana Health Service, Private Mail Bag, Accra, Ghana, 233-21-684-274, nyonator@africaonline.com.gh, (2) District Director, Nwkanta District Health Administration, Ghana Health Service, P.O. Box 54, Nkwanta, Volta Region, Ghana, (3) Policy Research Division, Population Council, 1 Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, New York, NY 10017

The Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) Initiative in Ghana is an example of a strategy for scaling up a field trial to a national programme. Representing a response to the problem that research projects can inadvertently produce nonreplicable service delivery capabilities, CHPS develops mechanisms for expanding national understanding and use of research findings to serve the health service needs of all Ghanaian households. This paper describes strategies for using community health service strategies that were successfully tested in a Navrongo Health Research Centre trial and validated in Nkwanta District for a national programme of reorienting primary health care from clinics to communities. Nurses, once confined to clinical duties, are relocated to community-constructed clinics where they live and work. Volunteers support their services by mobilizing traditional social institutions to foster community support. Strategies for decentralized planning ensure that operational details of the programme are adapted to local circumstances. Strengths and limitations of the programme are reviewed and discussed.

Learning Objectives:

• participants will understand how the Health sector in Ghana had used evidence-based policy to increase access to service delivery
• participants will learn how the initiative is being scaled up
• participants will be able to identify the constraints that are associated in the process of the science of scaling up and how these constraints can be overcome using the examples of the Government of Ghana

Keywords: Health Care Reform, Community-Oriented Primary Care

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.