SEND Ghana leading social accountability
Considering the far-reaching impact of COVID-19, and how indispensable vaccines are to curbing its spread, there is a need for objective, data-driven monitoring and accountability to ensure satisfactory delivery. SEND Ghana has applied a social accountability framework to ensure this.
With funding support from the Partnership for Transparency Fund (PTF), SEND Ghana through a survey “monitored the compliance for Ghana’s NDVP and citizens’ COVID-19 vaccination experience, with the view to promote equity, transparency and accountability of the COVID-19 NDVP and to inform future vaccination service delivery.” The study surveyed more than 1,000 citizens, health workers and teachers in 25 vaccination centres across eight districts in urban and peri-urban areas equally chosen from Accra and Kumasi, which were characterized by high incidents of COVID-19.
This was done to ascertain the level of uptake, thoughts and experiences around vaccination on the part of the target group and assess the distribution of cold chain equipment (CCEs) and vaccine logistics, among similar themes. An apparent theme of the exercise was the desire of the majority of respondents (52 percent) to get vaccinated with the goal of protecting not only themselves but persons with whom they come on in regular, close contact.
Logistics are required for the successful implementation of any mass inoculation drive and the survey discovered that the distribution of CCEs was “somewhat fair.” The available refrigerator models were considered “quite adequate” and their distribution across health centres in the districts “equitable.”
Gaps with other models, cold boxes and vaccine carriers drew calls for “the Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Service to adopt steps to increase the availability of vaccine logistics across districts within the country.” This comes to suggest that government needs to adopt necessary measures to ensure the supply of required capacity and the number of CCE and related accessories in districts with gaps.
The health facilities, it noted, observed strict adherence to safety and hygiene protocols, a phenomenon largely attributed to the operators’ deeper understanding of the risks, coupled with, in some instances, first-hand experience of the horrors of being infected. Most vaccination facilities offered discrete waiting spaces for vaccine recipients to rest and be monitored for any immediate negative effects. Hand hygiene amenities like alcohol-based sanitizers were also readily available.
Teachers and health professionals were given priority by the NDVP for the immunization exercise because of their susceptibility to contracting the virus. Despite this high vaccination rate, 1 in 10 medical professionals and 13.5 percent of teachers who had not received the immunizations stated concerns about side effects, a lack of knowledge about the safety and adverse effects of the vaccines, and doubts about their efficacy as justifications.
On account of the above, SEND recommended that the Ghana Health Service organize NDVP refresher training for its employees. Inasmuch as monitoring results indicate compliance was generally good, such a move would improve the NDVP guideline compliance rate. Health Directorates are encouraged to sustain the vaccine promotion efforts/campaigns to contribute to the attainment of the country’s herd immunity target with an emphasis on assuaging concerns over possible side effects and safety, which featured prominently.
Furthermore, building on the concern of respondents for the well-being of their close associates, it was recommended that the COVID-19 vaccination communication messages “should focus on the protection of family members and friends from the disease and possible deaths and less on mandates restricting access to services and employment reasons.” Ultimately, the GHS was urged to commend its staff for exhibiting top-rate professionalism during the vaccination exercise.
Going forward
Whilst it might seem that there is no imminent danger of a full-blown resurgence of the pandemic, there remains the possibility of mutation. Already, two subvariants of the omicron’s BA.5 strand – BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 – which emerged recently have both been described as “dangerous” and “qualities or characteristics that could evade some of the existing interventions,” according to a top US health official, as reported by its media.
Furthermore, the adoption of these recommendations would prove useful in the event of the outbreak of other illnesses. The threat of Ebola, Lassa fever, Marburg, and other severe respiratory diseases hangs over local healthcare systems almost in perpetuity. With the possible socioeconomic disruptions that a resurgence of COVID-19 or a similar pandemic would pose, the guidance provided in SEND GHANA and PTF’s survey must be implemented as a matter of urgency.
