One year into its establishment, the Ghana Medical Trust Fund (GMTF), popularly known as MahamaCares, is moving beyond its original image as a fund to pay the medical bills of poor patients, positioning itself instead as a broader intervention to expand Ghana’s capacity to prevent, diagnose and treat chronic and non-communicable diseases.
That emerging role was underscored by the Fund’s Administrator, Adjoa Obuobia Darko-Opoku, when management brought together Regional Coordinators and Patient Navigating Officers from across the country for an operational review as the Fund approaches the end of its first year.
The session, she explained, was designed to strengthen frontline operations, with teams receiving practical training on the Fund’s Tariffs Operational Manual, Medicines List, GMTFcare process flow and experiences from partner hospitals.
But for Ms Darko-Opoku, the meeting was also a moment to acknowledge the people behind the Fund’s first-year interventions.
She thanked staff for their commitment, sacrifices and the long hours invested in supporting patients and building the institution, while reminding them that “behind every process, referral and approval is a person hoping for another chance at life.”
That human-centred approach has defined the Fund’s first year.
Established to mobilise sustainable financing for specialist-level treatment of chronic diseases, GMTF focuses on conditions including cancer, cardiovascular diseases, chronic kidney disease, stroke and diabetes, complementing existing health-financing arrangements where major gaps remain.
Its first major test came through a 50-patient pilot. More than GH¢4.8 million was spent on heart and brain surgeries, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and orthopaedic procedures across 11 hospitals. The beneficiaries ranged in age from six months to 85 years.
The Fund has since expanded its patient-support programme to 29 hospitals nationwide, creating a system through which eligible patients can be assessed, navigated and supported through treatment.
Its ambition, however, extends beyond individual patients.
GMTF is financing three major cardiac centres at the Korle Bu, Komfo Anokye and Tamale Teaching Hospitals. The projects include Cardiac Catheterisation Laboratories and are intended to expand Ghana’s capacity to diagnose and treat complex heart and vascular conditions.
At Korle Bu, the Fund reconstructed and expanded the National Cardiothoracic Centre’s Cath Lab after the previous facility was destroyed by fire. The new facility was inaugurated in July 2026, restoring a critical service for patients requiring advanced cardiac interventions.
At KATH, construction of a modern Cath Lab was fast-tracked, while work is also progressing on the facility at Tamale Teaching Hospital—an intervention with particular significance for northern Ghana, where access to advanced cardiac care has historically been limited.
The Fund has also been responding to gaps in equipment and essential supplies. It has facilitated the distribution of critical equipment, including dialysis machines, ICU beds and patient monitors to health facilities, while Telecel Ghana Foundation supplied cervical cancer screening equipment to selected centres.
In August, GMTF extended that support beyond conventional hospitals, presenting the Ghana Prisons Service with a full container load of medical equipment, consumables and essential healthcare supplies. Ms Darko-Opoku said the intervention reflected the Fund’s belief that access to quality healthcare should not depend on a person’s status or location, stressing that prison healthcare was an integral part of the country’s wider public health system.
Human-resource development has also become a central component of the Fund’s strategy. GMTF has committed GH¢36.23 million to specialist healthcare training in partnership with the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons, Ghana College of Nurses and Midwives and Ghana College of Pharmacists. The programme targets specialist training in areas including oncology, nephrology, cardiology, endocrinology and neurology.
The Fund’s first year has equally been marked by growing public and corporate support.
President John Dramani Mahama pledged six months of his salary at the Fund’s launch in April 2025, while government appointees were encouraged to contribute one month’s salary. By June 2026, GH¢6.1 million had been transferred to GMTF from salary contributions involving the President, appointees and presidential staff, alongside deductions associated with asset-declaration defaults.
Corporate Ghana has also responded. GoldBod donated GH¢2 million; the National Petroleum Authority, BOSTenergies and agencies under the Interior Ministry each contributed GH¢1 million. Melcom Care Foundation and businessman Alhaji Seidu Agongo, through Alive Industries, each contributed GH¢500,000, while CBG and the Ghana Free Zones Authority gave GH¢300,000 each. Agricultural Development Bank also contributed GH¢200,000.
Ghana National Gas Company Limited separately donated GH¢300,000 to GMTF in December 2025, following an engagement with the Fund’s leadership.
Other early contributors included East Cantonments Pharmacy and KMI Energies, while Telecel Ghana supported the Fund through medical equipment rather than a cash contribution.
For Ms Darko-Opoku, however, the numbers are only meaningful when translated into lives saved and suffering reduced.
As the Fund prepares to enter its second year, she has charged its frontline personnel to “serve even better, reach further and ensure that hope gets to the people who need it most.”
The first year has therefore been less about establishing another institution and more about testing whether Ghana can build a sustainable financing and delivery mechanism for expensive specialist healthcare.
The next challenge is scale: reaching more patients, equipping more hospitals, producing more specialists and ensuring that the Fund’s growing pool of public and corporate support translates into measurable health outcomes for Ghanaians.
Source: www.kumasimail.com
