Trained health volunteers equipped with medical kits will fan out into communities across Ghana, sitting under trees, visiting homes and staffing containerised health kiosks to bring free screening and basic healthcare to Ghanaians where they live.
President John Dramani Mahama announced the details of the volunteer-driven outreach model on Wednesday during the official launch of the Free Primary Healthcare policy at the Shai-Osudoku District Hospital in Dodowa.
The President said the volunteers, who will include National Service personnel and recently graduated nurses and paramedics awaiting posting, will carry standardised health kits containing everything needed to conduct basic community screenings. He described the contents of the kit in detail.
“The minister has brought a sample of the bag. It has everything. It has got the scale for measuring if you are overweight, it has got a thermometer to take your temperature, it has got a blood glucose monitor, it has got a stethoscope to listen if you have any respiratory illness, it has got a blood pressure monitor and there is a torch light in the night if they have to work and then a raincoat in case it is raining,” the President said.
Volunteers will be trained to measure blood pressure, check blood glucose levels, assess body mass index, and conduct basic breast cancer checks, among other screenings. They will work both at fixed health kiosks and in the open, moving through communities on motorcycles to reach people who would not otherwise seek care at a facility.
The health kiosks, which the President described as containerised CHPS compounds, will be deployed in areas that currently lack health facilities, extending the physical footprint of the primary healthcare system into underserved communities.
Mahama said volunteers who take part in the programme would be given priority in government postings when the time comes, as an incentive for participation.
Complementing the volunteer model, the President announced the revival of the mobile health clinics programme, which he said operated during his first term under the name “On Your Doorstep” before being abandoned after his administration left office.
“I am going to restart the door programme, and we will deploy the mobile clinics to the districts. They would have outpatient departments, everything, and they’ll provide treatment,” he said.
The rollout begins immediately in 150 priority districts, with the remainder of the country covered by 2028.
Richard Aniagyei, ISD
