Ghana’s Health Workforce Policy Evolution from 1996 to 2020: A document analysis

Abstract

Background There is paucity of evidence on the interaction between health workforce policies, their intended strategic objectives, and health workforce indices to aid the understanding of past policy failures and successes and to plan for future health workforce policy implementation in Ghana. Methods Using the READ approach of document analysis, we explored the public health sector health workforce policy environment of Ghana to gauge the impact major health workforce policies have had in determining the production of and demand for essential health workforce. Findings Ghana have undergone three distinct phases of health workforce policy evolutions, following its health sectors reforms in the 1990s - an expansionary production and recruitment policy drive between the late 1990s and 2011, a seeming policy vacuum between 2012 and 2018, and a phase of policy streamlining from 2020 where fiscal realities began shaping issues of health workforce production and demand. Conclusion The distinct phases of the health workforce policy evolution had differing impacts on the production of and demand for essential health workforce, with instances of misalignment between policy objectives and implementation.