A report released by the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) has revealed that since 1960, Ghana’s life expectancy has increased from 45.8 years to 63.5 years as of 2017.

The report said health expenditure must be shown to directly improve the quality of healthcare the Ghanaian receives through the conversion of health inputs and outputs into outcomes.

The report, titled: “Towards Election 2020: Reshaping Ghana’s health sector Debate”, however, said Ghana’s life expectancy ranking, among countries in the world, has consistently dropped.

While Ghana was ranked 117th country where the population lived longer in 1960, by 2018, “our ranking had dropped to 157th. Meaning, 40 countries have improved the average longevity of their citizens and overtaken Ghana in the last six decades”.

One of the main objectives of health investment by governments is to ensure adequate resourcing, the report said.

“This could be seen in parameters such as improvement in infrastructure and the training and recruitment of health human resources.

“These are termed output indicators. Health output indicators augment inputs to ensure that outcomes are in line with the aspirations of the health system.

“It is, therefore, possible to track human re our e indices like the number of doctors and nurses to a population of 1000 as a means of estimating where health expenditure is providing the required results in the short term that will significantly transform outcomes”.