70% of Ghana’s health facilities private, embrace SafeCare to improve quality care

Ghana’s private healthcare sector, which accounts for the majority of health facilities in the country, is taking a bold step toward quality assurance and global alignment by embracing the internationally recognised SafeCare standards.

At the centre of this transformation is the Healthcare Federation of Ghana (HFG), which has secured a license to roll out SafeCare Version 5 – recently accredited by the International Society for Quality in Healthcare (ISQua) – across its broad membership of hospitals, clinics, maternity homes, hospitals, pharmacies, laboratories, wholesalers and manufacturers.

According to HFG President, Mr. Charles Fordjour, the role of the private sector in Ghana’s healthcare delivery is both dominant and indispensable.

“Over 70% of facilities in Ghana fall under what we call the private sector. In the same way, when it comes to utilisation of healthcare, over 60% of Ghanaians access healthcare in the private sector,” he stated.

Despite this critical role, the sector has long lacked a unifying quality benchmark that could ensure consistency, safety and transparency across its many provider types. That gap, Mr. Fordjour argued, is what makes the partnership with PharmAccess – licensing SafeCare standards to HFG – so timely and essential.

The SafeCare model offers a structured path for facilities to improve service delivery through a cycle of assessments, capacity building and continuous quality improvements. Facilities that achieve accreditation under SafeCare can confidently claim that their services meet international benchmarks for safety, performance and patient experience.

“It is very critical that we come together as private sector players to ensure that whatever we do is aligned with global standards,” Mr. Fordjour said.

Under the new arrangement, PharmAccess will train healthcare professionals under HFG as quality assessors who will be responsible for guiding member facilities through the SafeCare certification process. This shift places responsibility and ownership of quality squarely within the private sector – moving from external audits to sector-led quality leadership.

The Federation believes that the SafeCare rollout will improve health outcomes, strengthen patient trust and make Ghana’s private providers more competitive both locally and regionally. It also opens up new opportunities for collaboration with private insurers, employers and international partners who are increasingly demanding verifiable quality standards from healthcare providers.

As Ghana seeks to modernise its healthcare system and reduce inequality in care quality across regions and providers, SafeCare accreditation may well become the standard that distinguishes reliable facilities from the rest and positions the country as a serious player in regional healthcare delivery.

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