Adjoa Obuobia Darko-Opoku, the Administrator, Ghana Medical Trust Fund (GMTF), has urged Ghanaians to always remember that President John Mahama feels their burden as his own and moves to act, not just sympathise.
During the fourth stop of the Fund’s nationwide regional stakeholder engagement at Ho, she said the Fund was created to end the painful cycle where a single diagnosis like cancer, kidney disease, a cardiovascular condition, stroke or complications of diabetes threw an entire Ghanaian family into financial hardship.
The GMTF, a national statutory fund established to mobilise sustainable financing for specialised medical care for people living with chronic Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs), is an initiative of President Mahama to provide financial support and specialised care for Ghanaians suffering from chronic NCDs not fully covered by the National Health Insurance Scheme.
Positioned at the apex of Ghana’s three-tier health financing system, the GMTF, popularly known as “Mahama Cares” complements Free Primary Health Care (FPHC) and the NHIS by closing the critical financing gap for high-cost, specialised treatment that often falls beyond the routine NHIS coverage.
Madam Darko-Opoku noted that the burden went beyond the patient, as relatives were forced to abandon work to provide care, children’s education disrupted, savings depleted and family assets sold to keep treatment going.
“These are the circumstances that led the government to establish the Trust Fund,” she said. “In line with President Mahama’s vision, we have been entrusted with building an institution that supports eligible Ghanaians who require high-cost treatment for chronic non-communicable diseases and strengthens the healthcare system.”
Madam Darko-Opoku explained that the Fund embarked on a nationwide assessment of teaching hospitals and major referral facilities to understand the real challenges in specialised care.
The exercise showed that financial support alone would not be enough if diagnostic services remained weak, equipment inadequate and specialist numbers were limited.
She said that engagement informed the Fund’s current operational four interconnected pillars – financial support for eligible patients, provision of medical equipment and infrastructure, specialist training and capacity development, and research and innovation.
Touching on progress so far, the Administrator revealed that the Fund had piloted its systems with 50 patients nationwide, developed a medicines list and tariffs in collaboration with specialists, and operationalised the GMTF Care platform.
She added that infrastructure interventions had begun, including the restoration of the cardiac catheterisation laboratory at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital and ongoing cardiology centre projects at Komfo Anokye and Tamale Teaching Hospitals to expand access to dialysis and other critical services.
Madam Darko-Opoku commended Ho Teaching Hospital and the University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS) for their role in clinical care, training and research, describing them as essential partners.
She appealed to traditional leaders, Members of Parliament, religious leaders, health professionals and the media to help carry accurate information about the Fund’s mandate, eligibility criteria and access processes to communities across the region.
“Always remember and never forget that truly, Mahama Cares,” she emphasised.
Prof Lydia Aziato, UHAS Vice-Chancellor who is an oncology nurse and passionate about breast cancer described the GMTF as an answered prayer, recalling a quote from a breast cancer patient, in those days when there was no one to talk to patients.
Patients were just left alone with the diagnosis, and many resorted to faith and by the time they realised it was not a spiritual problem, the disease had advanced, creating huge burden in terms of cost of care, Prof Aziato added.
She commended government for the three-tier health financing system, saying the FPHC would help detect these cases early and by the time they got to the hospitals the disease could be treated successfully and, in most cases, cured so the women could live their full years on earth.
Prof. Aziato urged women to detect early, treat early because someone cared, and encouraged all who had the disease not to hide, but be bold and take advantage of the opportunity to seek medical care at the hospital.