After a successful launch of the USAID funded “People for Health” (P4H) project online platform (www.people4health.org ), Penplusbytes is set to deploy the platform to the project districts starting from the Northern Region from the 16th to the 20th of October 2017.
The project online platform developed on Penplusbytes “Kakum” citizen engagement resource tool is intended to facilitate citizens’ access to health information especially the Patients’ Charter and provide an avenue for citizens to report their experiences in accessing healthcare.
Penplusbytes, the lead ICT organization in the P4H project consortium, is embarking on the dashboard deployment which will involve an orientation session for technology champions within the districts on how to access the digital component of the project online tools dashboard. Two persons including one focal person and District Health Monitoring Team representative in each district will be given authorization to have direct access to citizens reports and will be taken through how to respond to comments, complaints and observations from patients emanating from their respective districts. They will also be guided through aggregating and drawing insights from citizens’ reports and escalating the reports to duty bearers using technological innovations.
Activities for the week will start off with a kick off meeting with stakeholders of the 15 District Citizens Monitoring Committees (DCMCs) in each district (Gushegu, Yendi, East Mamprusi, Central Gonja and Tamale), health service providers, District Health Monitoring Teams and Northern Regional Coordinating Council. This meeting is intended to sensitize the stakeholders on the P4H dashboard.
As part of the deployment exercise, there will be one-on-one visits to some of health facilities in each district on the P4H project where health workers in each of the facilities visited would be educated on how the dashboard works. Flyers and posters will then be shared and displayed on the notice boards of the health facilities which will serve as a guide on how ordinary citizens can access the digital platform.
The interactive platform purposely built for the P4H project is mainly to provide and share information on maternal and child health/family planning, malaria, water, sanitation and hygiene, nutrition and HIV/AIDS health service delivery at the district, regional and national levels. It is also to provide a non-human interface means of reporting cases of stigmatization and discrimination in receiving proper health care especially among key populations and people living with HIV/AIDS.
According to the Executive Director of Penplusbytes, Kwami Ahiabenu II, “Penplusbytes under this project has built an innovative tool that is meant to bridge the communication gap between health care providers and patients. It must however be very useful to the end-user which is why this deployment is essential.”
The deployment exercise is expected to be carried out in project districts in the Eastern, Greater Accra and Volta regions before close of year.
The 5-year USAID “People for Health (P4H)” Project is being implemented by the SEND-Ghana, Penplusbytes and Ghana News Agency consortium in 20 districts in four regions of Ghana. The project seeks to strengthen organisational and institutional capacities of government and civil society organisations (CSOs) for mutual accountability in health, HIV, water, sanitation and hygiene, family planning and nutrition policy formulation and implementation.
Its ultimate goal is to deliver tangible results in the improvement of health indicators and more importantly ensure that key populations have bias free and equal access to quality health services across the country.
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Penplusbytes is a not-for-profit organization driving change through innovations in three key areas: using new digital technologies to enable good governance and accountability, new media and innovations, and driving oversight for effective utilisation of mining, oil and gas revenue and resources.