NRW–Ghana Health Partnership

BACKROUND TO THE PROJECT

Despite significant progress, medical care for Ghana’s citizens still falls below requirements. Poorer sections of the population in particular often have limited access to appropriate health services: the country lacks qualified medical staff, especially well-trained specialist doctors, and adequately equipped health care facilities.

The Ghanaian Ministry of Health aims to ensure that health services are available for the population across the country by 2030. To achieve this, the Ghanaian Government has launched a number of measures, including the construction of new hospitals. More skilled workers are also being trained in the health sector. However, specialist medical personnel and high-quality advanced training programmes for specialist doctors remain in short supply.

Against this background, a long-term programme dedicated to strengthening the Ghanaian health sector was set up as part of the partnership between Ghana and NRW. The pilot project focused on networking between personnel at health facilities in Ghana and NRW, initiating partnerships, and testing training formats for health care professionals from Ghana. The aim was to harness expertise from NRW to enhance the specialist knowledge of health care professionals from Ghana and strengthen the capacities of health care facilities in the country.

PROJECT OBJECTIVE

The project’s objective was to build networks between health care practitioners from Ghana and NRW, promote partnerships and dialogue between medical professionals, and test training formats targeted at strengthening the health sector in Ghana.

The project was designed to contribute to the third Sustainable Development Goal of ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages.

PROJECT ACTIVITIES

Delegation mission for the NRW-Ghana Health Partnership
To pave the way for the partnership, health sector representatives from Ghana visited NRW in February 2024 on a one-week delegation mission. This provided a starting point for dialogue and networking between the participants from Ghana and NRW, who identified initial ideas for implementing the health partnership. Twelve representatives from the Ghanaian Ministry of Health, Ghana Health Service and five teaching hospitals in Ghana took part in the mission.

Needs analysis at hospitals in Ghana
A team of doctors from three NRW university hospitals subsequently visited Ghana to analyse local training needs and coordinate the content of the proposed medical training programme in NRW with the representatives of the Ghanaian hospitals. The visit enabled the proposed training in NRW to be tailored to actual needs in Ghana. Ideas for partnerships and a long-term exchange of expertise were also developed further during the visit.

Training programme in NRW
Based on the needs analysis, a practice-oriented training programme for 30 health care practitioners from Ghana was developed. The one-month training programme in NRW took place in September 2024 at the university hospitals in Aachen, Bonn and Cologne. The participants were mainly doctors from five teaching hospitals outside Ghana’s metropolitan regions. They were given the opportunity to extend their expertise in specialist areas such as anaesthetics, emergency medicine, trauma surgery, gynaecology and neonatology, focusing on practical applications. The programme provided both theoretical knowledge and a chance to improve practical skills by means of training, simulation sessions and placements in the three NRW university hospitals.

Hospital partnerships
The project also helped to initiate and promote partnerships between hospitals in Ghana and NRW. The partnerships are designed to enable longer-term planning that goes beyond individual measures. To this end, an existing partnership between Kings Medical Center in Bontanga and Unterstützung der medizinischen Versorgung in Ghana e.V./Klinikum Dortmund received support to intensify an initiative for exchanges and training for health care practitioners. Joint follow-up activities were also conducted to take forward the establishment of further partnerships between the participating NRW university hospitals and five hospitals in Ghana.