Abstract
BackgroundAccessibility of health care to students with disabilities is a global concern. This is no less important in Ghana, however, to date, no study has been undertaken regarding access to health care to students with disabilities. This study, therefore, aims to explore the accessibility of health care to students with disabilities, in the quest of achieving universal health coverage in Ghana.MethodsQualitative methods, involving in-depth interviews were employed to collect data from 54 participants (29 students with disabilities, 17 health workers and 8 school mothers), selected through purposive sampling. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data.ResultsThe study identified three themes – accessibility, adequacy, and affordability. The study findings highlighted that universal health coverage for students with disabilities has not been achieved due to barriers in accessing health care. The barriers faced by students with disabilities were unfriendly physical environments, structures, equipment, limited support services and poor health insurance policy to finance health care.ConclusionThe study concludes that the government should prioritize disability-related issues in health policy formulation, implementation and monitoring. The current provisions and requirements in the disability act should be prioritized, enforced and monitored to ensure adequate inclusion of disability issues in health services. Further, the current exemption policy under the National Health Insurance Scheme should be revised to adequately address the needs of people with disabilities.
Highlights
Accessibility of health care to students with disabilities is a global concern
The study aims to explore the accessibility of health care to students with disabilities, in the quest of achieving universal health coverage in Ghana
The study findings highlighted that universal health coverage for students with disabilities has not been achieved due to barriers in accessing health care
Summary
Accessibility of health care to students with disabilities is a global concern. Several studies have highlighted that people with disabilities in Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) face substantial barriers in accessing health care [8,9,10,11,12,13,14]. These barriers are attributed largely to several weaknesses in the health systems as well as individual factors of people with disabilities.
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