Repository logo

Browsing by Person "Kusi, Anthony"

Filter results by typing the first few letters
Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    The experience of Ghana in implementing a user fee exemption policy to provide free delivery care
    (Elsevier, 2007) Witter, Sophie; Arhinful, Daniel Kojo; Kusi, Anthony; Zakariah-Akoto, Sawudatu
    In resource-poor countries, the high cost of user fees for deliveries limits access to skilled attendance, and contributes to maternal and neonatal mortality and the impoverishment of vulnerable households. A growing number of countries are experimenting with different approaches to tackling financial barriers to maternal health care. This paper describes an innovative scheme introduced in Ghana in 2003 to exempt all pregnant women from payments for delivery, in which public, mission and private providers could claim back lost user fee revenues, according to an agreed tariff. The paper presents part of the findings of an evaluation of the policy based on interviews with 65 key informants in the health system at national, regional, district and facility level, including policymakers, managers and providers. The exemption mechanism was well accepted and appropriate, but there were important problems with disbursing and sustaining the funding, and with budgeting and management. Staff workloads increased as more women attended, and levels of compensation for services and staff were important to the scheme's acceptance. At the end of 2005, a national health insurance scheme, intended to include full maternal health care cover, was starting up in Ghana, and it was not yet clear how the exemptions scheme would fit into it.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Working practices and incomes of health workers: evidence from an evaluation of a delivery fee exemption scheme in Ghana
    (BioMed Central, 2007) Witter, Sophie; Kusi, Anthony; Aikins, Moses
    This article describes a survey of health workers and traditional birth attendants (TBAs) which was carried out in 2005 in two regions of Ghana. The objective of the survey was to ascertain the impact of the introduction of a delivery fee exemption scheme on both health workers and those providers who were excluded from the scheme (TBAs). This formed part of an overall evaluation of the delivery fee exemption scheme. The results shed light not only on the scheme itself but also on the general productivity of a range of health workers in Ghana.