Adapting the health system in Ghana to reach the urban poor

FPH/GCPS – University of York Urban CHPS Project Overview

Grant Title: Adapting the health system in Ghana to reach the urban poor

Funder: Medical Research Council (MRC), UK.

Awardee: University of York (Read More)

Collaborator: Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons

Collaboration Agreement (No. R21963): Between GCPS & University of York Signed on 15^th  September 2020

Original Project Start Date: 1st January, 2020

Original End Date: 31st December, 2021

Duration: 24 months

Revision due to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Start Date: 1st September, 2020; End Date: 31st August, 2022; Duration: 24 months

Ethics Approval: Ghana Health Service Ethics Review Committee – GHS-ERC Number: (GHS-ERC 003/10/20) – 21^st January 2021 (Renewal after 12 months)

Project Overview

The Project seeks to  research into how the Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) system in the country that was been demonstrated to improve health service delivery and health status of rural communities, could be implemented in urban settings.

The funding of the project is through a joint proposal submitted by FPH/GCPS and University of York teams in response to the MRC’s Health Systems Research Initiative (HSRI) Foundation Fund Call 6  (2019).

The project has the following stages, the output one becomes the input of the next:

• Stage 1: Review and critically analyse preceding efforts to implement rural and urban CHPS in order to understand what worked (or not), how and why.
• State 2: Explore social structures of the project area, poor urban communities, vulnerable individuals and households, including the uninsured; identify their health challenges and current health seeking behaviour; and using this information in stage 3.
• Stage 3: Co-create a CHPS model to ensure urban relevance; implement with the stakeholders using Participatory Action Research approach;and document the processes and results
• Stage 4: Evaluate the implementation processes, costs, and acceptability from the perspective of urban populations who are marginalized & vulnerable (i.e. women & children), frontline health workers, volunteers & health systems managers; and identify the pathway for scale up;
• Stage 5: Make recommendations on contextually appropriate modifications to the CHPS and NHIS policy, programme and implementation arrangements for urban localities as well as approaches to scale up.

Study Sites

The Project is in three CHPS zones within two Sub-Metros in the Accra Metropolitan Area as listed below.

Research Teams