The region which comprises of what is described as the Western Africa region indicates significant disparities in healthcare as compared to the more developed societies such as Europe and the US. These disparities in healthcare are influenced the widely varying socioeconomic health determinants and they tend to impact more heavily on subpopulations within this general population (Couttolenc, 13). In specific, the most vulnerable groups include the women, the children and the elderly. The high rates of infant mortality and pregnant mothers’ mortalities are a reflection of the vulnerability of these two groups. On the other hand, the low life expectancy is a reflection of the low quality of life that people in old age experience and the risk of early deaths before they attain an fairly old age like it would be in the developed regions (Gilbert, Tal and Leah Gilbert, 247). There are various influencing factors that have led to this situation; on one hand are the prevalent poverty rates within the region and the lack of effective government structures to ensure that even the available scarce resources are distributed to manage these disparities (Braveman, S152). On the other hand, the limited access to care influenced by high costs of care and unavailability of care facilities that are available to the remote populations has played its fairly significant role in the current trends. Further, the lack of enough personnel to serve these populations has led to a very strained healthcare system in these regions and thus limiting its effectiveness to serve a needy population (Falola, Toyin and Steven, 47).
RECOMMENDATIONS:
The depth of problems that characterize the healthcare systems in this region and the limited resources within the region coupled with the bureaucratic nature of governments implies that more partners have to come in to help in resolving the prevailing challenges. One major strategy is to partner with international organizations such as AMREF and the Global health council to outsource healthcare personnel to work in these regions in partnerships with the existing workforce (Holtz, 74). This will however call for a plan that will provide for better remunerations fro these personnel as a source of motivation. This partnership will include the governments in these regions as well as the community based groups within the region to help in the health promotion programs as part of the complementary roles that reduce the workload on the existing and new workforce that will be provided through this partnership. The governments through their respective health departments will play the role of setting up infrastructure while the other partners will work on the supply and remunerations of the personnel (Braveman, S155). The costs for medications and the other processes will be co-shared between the governments and the partners. The purpose of this program and the partnership is to help strandline the quality of operations of the healthcare system so that it reaches the needy groups and the available resources are managed to impact positively on them. Similarly, the community based groups involvement will play a key role in education and health promotion as strategies to endear people to take the personal responsibility to seek access to care. There is a need to shift the healthcare policy away from the notion that it is built on economic development and recognize its role in human development for vulnerable groups; that will be the purpose of this program (Gilbert, Tal and Leah Gilbert, 255).
Works cited
Braveman, Paula A., et al. "Health disparities and health equity: the issue is justice." American Journal of Public Health 101.S1 (2011): S149-S155.
Couttolenc, Bernard F. Decentralization and governance in the Ghana health sector. World Bank Publications, 2012.
Falola, Toyin, and Steven J. Salm, eds. Globalization and urbanization in Africa. Africa World Press, 2004.
Gilbert, Tal, and Leah Gilbert. "Globalisation and local power: influences on health matters in South Africa." Health Policy 67.3 (2004): 245-255.
Holtz, Carol. Global Health Care: Issues and Policies. 2nd ed. Sudbury: Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 2014. Print.
