Sanford International Clinic-Ghana, a US-based Clinic has signed a Memoranda of Understanding with the Ghana Health Service (GHS) to offer scholarships to health practitioners in the country.

The scholarship scheme is to build the capacity of health assistants in midwifery to improve access in health care delivery especially in the rural communities.

Sanford International Clinic-Ghana has allocated 100,000 dollars as full scholarship for the year for health assistants who qualified to pursue midwifery course for two years.

Dr Kojo Taylor, President of Sanford International Clinic-Ghana, signing the agreement said interested applicants who applied for the programme would go through review processes, and they must be serving officers in the public sector and be financially challenged.

He said the scholarship was necessitated due to gaps in health delivery with respect to midwifery and that scheme would provide opportunities for health assistants to upgrade their knowledge and contribute in bridging the gap and improve health care delivery.

Dr Taylor noted that Sanford International Clinics first formed a relationship with Ghana's Ministry of Health when it opened a clinic in Cape Coast in January 2012.

The company has since opened four additional clinics in Mankessim, Kasoa, Kojokrom, and Adenta that have resulted in the treatment of more than 180,000 patients in the country.

Dr Taylor said their outfit had partnered with the Ministry of Health to build more than 300 clinics to improve maternal care and reduce infant mortality rate by 2020.

The partnership, which will be a public-private partnership, was targeted to bring health care to many Ghanaians in the country.

He stressed that the partnership was to also improve access in peri-urban and rural areas, allowing patients to access primary care services closer to home.

Mr Taylor said the new relationship will make a significant impact, adding, "Much of the rural population in Ghana do not have access to basic care. The addition of these clinics will greatly change the scope of health care across the nation. Thousands of families will no longer be forced to travel for basic services."

Mr Yaw Brobbey Mpiani, Deputy Director in charge of Administration, GHS, commended Stanford for the opportunity, saying the gesture would complement government efforts in improving access to the health sector.

Mr Mpiani said after completion of the course, some of the health assistants would be deployed to various Sandford Clinics across the country to improve the health needs of the community.

He said the partnerships since its inception in 2012 had created hundreds of clinics in the country and increase access to physicians and health care services.

According to Sanford Health's Vice President, Jim Slack, the partnership with the Ministry of Health had the potential to create hundreds of clinics in the country as well as give the people of Ghana greater access to physicians and health care services.

GNA

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