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The Ministry of Health has received healthcare equipment and ambulances from the government of Japan.
The donation was made through its agency, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), a Japanese official development aid, which is aimed at supporting the socioeconomic development, recovery or economic stability of developing regions.
The equipment received at a presentation ceremony last Thursday will be handed over to the beneficiary health facilities.
The equipment included 16 units of refrigerated cargo trucks; one unit cold and freezer room for Tamale; a generator to provide backup power to the cold and freezer room; one unit of CT scanner machine for Ho Teaching Hospital and Sic units of direct digital X-ray machines with their accessories.
Others include two water tankers; six ambulances and 21 thermal cameras for scanning body temperatures which had already been installed at various airports and borders across the country.
Receiving the items, the Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, expressed the country’s gratitude to the Government of Japan for the gesture and its continuous support to the health sector over the years.
“As a country, we have benefited from the long and successful relationship with the Government of Japan, dating back several years through technical assistance, grant aid and donations of equipment and commodities.”
“Additionally, through JICA, various initiatives related to improving the health of Ghanaians continue to be implemented,” he said.
Mr Agyeman-Manu said the support would advance the country’s aggressive pursuance of Universal Health Coverage to ensure that all people living in the country had timely access to high-quality essential health care and public health services by 2030.
The Japanese Ambassador to Ghana, Mochizuki Hisanobu, said in January 2020, the Japanese Embassy signed an agreement with the Ministry of Health under Japan’s Economic and Social Development Programme for the provision of medical equipment to support the country to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said some of the equipment, especially those under the Economic and Social Development Programme, had already been deployed.
“I am pleased that today we are handing over the final batch of equipment. Japan places emphasis on strengthening the partnership with Ghana in the areas of health as we believe this is one of the ways to making UHC in the country a reality.”
The Chief Representative of JICA, Suzuki Momoko, said the COVID-19 pandemic and the outbreaks of monkey pox and Murburg virus diseases in the country highlighted that a well-managed vaccine system was key to the development of a resilient public health system.
She said a health system positioned to mitigate the threats of any infectious diseases on lives, livelihoods and distortions in critical health services such as maternal and child health was critical.
“The Japanese government, through JICA, would continue to extend critical support to step-up the ministry’s effort to revamp routine immunisation to the thousands of children who missed out on essential vaccination, restore vaccination to pre-pandemic levels and strengthen the overall Expanded Programme for Immunisation,” she said.
Ms Momoko said it was to that effect that the medical equipment and cold chain facilities had been donated.
