The Provost of the College of Health Sciences of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Prof. Christian Agyare has stressed the need to support emergency preparedness and response to pandemics.

He believes building the capacity of healthcare professionals is a crucial step in that regard.

“I know you would agree with me that the COVID-19 exposed a lot of cracks in our health system and its delivery. The pandemic has caused us to rethink and redesign a lot of our interventions in the healthcare system.

“Emergency preparedness and response to pandemic in our part of the world needs overwhelming supports in all aspects, including building of capacity of not only healthcare workers, but from the household level," Dean of the faculty of pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences, Prof. Samuel Asare-Nkansah spoke on his behalf.

The Emergency Preparedness and Response to Pandemic short course is thus equipping 20 health personnel with skills to enhance the sector.

The workshop is spearheaded by the Health Employment pillar of the Mastercard Foundation Africa Higher Education Health Collaborative led by Dr Kofi Akohene Mensah.

The Africa Higher Education Health Collaborative in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation seeks to advance healthcare in Africa through three pillars: Health Employment, Health Entrepreneurship and Health Ecosystem.

In the past three months, Mastercard Foundation Education Health Collaborative has trained over 250 persons in Health Impact Assessment, Healthcare Industry and Regulatory Affairs, Leadership, Healthcare Financing, Palliative care Module 1, and Quality Healthcare Improvement among others.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, the Principal Investigator, Prof. Ellis Owusu-Dabo encouraged the participants to help transform primary healthcare in Ghana.

“There is a lot ahead of us and our target is you. We as Ghanaians must know our nation’s healthcare can only be transformed by us. It is important to know you must come back to serve your communities”

The Africa Higher Education Health Collaborative in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation seeks to advance healthcare in Africa through three pillars: Health Employment, Health Entrepreneurship and Health Ecosystem.

Leader of the team from the University of Toronto, Dr Nour Khatib expressed her appreciation to KNUST for the co-creative nature of the course.