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The Ghana Medical Trust Fund (GMTF) has announced a major expansion of its operations, shifting from the payment of patients' medical bills to the construction of specialised health facilities across the country.
The Trust Fund is building new cardiac catheterisation centres at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi and the Tamale Teaching Hospital, and plans to develop a comprehensive Oncology and Nuclear Medicine Centre at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital. It is also establishing a US$10 million Diagnostic and Imaging Centre at the Greater Accra Regional Hospital.
The Administrator of the Trust Fund, Mrs Adjoa Obuobia Darko-Opoku, disclosed this at an event organised by the State Interests and Governance Authority in Accra. She said the decision followed a nationwide assessment conducted across teaching, regional and referral hospitals, which examined shortages in health facilities, patients' experiences, distances travelled for treatment, waiting times, specialist shortages and the challenges facing healthcare professionals.
She said the findings showed that financial assistance alone could not solve the problems confronting patients with chronic and non-communicable diseases, and that the Fund had therefore adopted a strategy of tackling affordability, infrastructure, equipment, specialist shortages and research at the same time.
The Fund's intervention rests on four pillars: financial assistance for eligible patients requiring specialised treatment for chronic diseases; investment in medical equipment and infrastructure; specialist training and human-capacity development; and research and innovation in non-communicable diseases.
Mrs Darko-Opoku said the pillars could not be separated. "Funding treatment does not help much without the right equipment. Equipment is not useful without trained specialists, and ongoing care needs research to help us learn and improve," she said.
Following the fire at the National Cardiothoracic Centre at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, the Trust Fund supported the rebuilding and expansion of the cardiac catheterisation laboratory. Construction is now underway on new cardiac catheterisation centres at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital and the Tamale Teaching Hospital. The Fund expects to equip, commission and bring the two facilities into operation by the end of the year.
At Korle Bu, the Fund is developing a comprehensive Oncology and Nuclear Medicine Centre with private investors. The facility will include a PET-CT scanner, linear accelerator machines, MRI and CT scanners, and a chemotherapy suite. The aim is to establish an integrated cancer-care pathway within the public health system, bringing diagnosis, advanced imaging, treatment and nuclear medicine together.
The Greater Accra Regional Hospital, which attends to about 800 patients daily, is to benefit from a purpose-built Diagnostic and Imaging Centre. KGL Group committed US$10 million towards the project after engagement with Corporate Ghana. The facility will provide MRI, CT scan, mammography, digital X-ray and fluoroscopy services under one roof. Mrs Darko-Opoku said the site had been secured and preparatory processes were underway.
Mrs Darko-Opoku said the Fund would not end its responsibility at procurement. She said the equipment and infrastructure being provided would remain under the Trust Fund's care, with systems for management, servicing and maintenance to ensure the investments remained functional. She added that donated medical equipment would be directed to hospitals based on evidence from the nationwide needs assessment.
The assessment also exposed shortages of specialists, which force many patients with chronic diseases to travel outside their regions for advanced treatment. The Fund has partnered with professional colleges to invest in specialist training, with the ambition of ensuring every region has at least ten specialists within the next few years. It is also using data from patient care, disease trends, hospital needs and outcomes to guide future interventions.
The Fund continues to support patients directly. After piloting its processes with 50 patients, it developed GMTF Care, a digital platform for patient registration, case management, approvals, claims and payments. More than 500 patients have so far been onboarded onto the platform.
Mrs Darko-Opoku thanked President John Dramani Mahama, Vice President Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, government appointees, the Health Ministry, the National Health Insurance Authority and the Fund's Board of Trustees for their support. She said personal financial contributions from the President, Vice President and government appointees provided seed funding for the Fund.
The Social Security and National Insurance Trust is procuring a 64-slice CT scanner and mammography machine, while the Ghana Gold Board has pledged an MRI machine. Mrs Darko-Opoku called for more partnerships from state-owned enterprises, private companies and development partners.
She said the success of the Fund would not be measured by the number of projects announced, but by whether a Ghanaian with a non-communicable disease could obtain affordable treatment, access the right equipment and find a specialist nearby.
