A two-day intensive capacity-building workshop was held in Accra for 50 journalists from across Ghana, aimed at enhancing their ability to use the Community Scorecard (CSC) as a tool to improve the country’s primary healthcare system.
The event, organized by the African Media and Malaria Research Network (AMMREN) in collaboration with the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Ministry of Health, ALMA, and Expertise France, was focused on the theme: “Effective Use of the Media to Scale Up Universal Health Coverage.”
The Community Scorecard, which was developed by the GHS in partnership with ALMA in 2018, is a community-driven governance tool designed to assess the quality of healthcare services provided by primary healthcare facilities.
The CSC aims to improve accountability and responsiveness within healthcare facilities by allowing community members to evaluate the quality of services based on nine key indicators.
Through this initiative, community members can identify gaps in care and take local action to address these issues, while also providing valuable insights for health stakeholders on areas needing support.
Currently, Ghana uses four types of scorecards: Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child, and Adolescent Health (RMNCAH), Malaria, Nutrition, and Community Health Services. Data for these scorecards is automatically generated every quarter through the District Health Information Management System (DHIMS2), and the country is working on expanding the scorecards to include HIV and tuberculosis.
During the workshop, journalists were trained on how to use data from the CSC to hold policymakers and healthcare providers accountable and to improve the quality of media reporting on primary healthcare.
Participants were also encouraged to use the scorecard to foster positive perceptions of healthcare services and address misconceptions that may hinder public trust and utilization of healthcare services.
Dr. Charity Binka, Executive Secretary of AMMREN, said the specific Objectives for media training is to equip journalists with a comprehensive understanding of the CSC process, from data collection to action plan development, to enable informed and accurate reporting.
Additionally,the workshop aimed to “
train journalists on how to access and interpret CSC data to tell compelling stories about health system gaps, community needs, and achievements.
Enable journalists to use CSC data for advocacy by highlighting health system challenges and successes and promoting accountability from duty bearers.Create opportunities for journalists to engage with community members and health officials during interface meetings, enabling them to gather first-hand insights for in-depth reporting and Leverage the media to enhance public awareness and discourse on health system improvements, community feedback, and CSC outcomes”. Said Dr.Charity Binka.
Dr. Andrews Ayim, Deputy Director of the Policy Planning, Monitoring, and Evaluation Division at GHS, stressed that media plays a key role in improving community engagement and addressing the gaps between local health facilities and the people they serve.
“Balanced and objective reporting can help bridge the divide and contribute to improved health outcomes nationwide,” Dr. Ayim stated.
On his part, Mr Divine Kwame Amanieh, the Deputy Chief Biostatistics Officer, Policy, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, GHS, stated that the total Community Scorecard has been strongly integrated into the Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) strategy, with about 1,800 CHPS zones of the 5,205 functional CHPS zones currently implementing the initiative aimed to bridge healthcare service gaps and achieve Universal Health Coverage by 2030.
Kojo Ansah, EIB Network’s Eastern Regional Correspondent, was among the journalists who attended the workshop.
He said the training was “insightful” and would empower him to produce more accurate, data-driven reports on health issues in his region. “This training on the community scorecard will enhance my ability to enrich my reporting on rural health using solid data on community scorecard ” Ansah added.
