Identifying exposures of health facilities to potential disasters in the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area of Ghana

The Health sector in Ghana has over the years received huge capital investments from the government, its partners and other private entities. These have resulted in the transformation, upgrade and provision of new health facilities across the country. Despite these efforts, the sector still faces challenges of inadequate infrastructure. Furthermore, the existing facilities may be threatened by the occurrences of disasters in the country. The Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA), which contains the most advanced health facilities in the country is one area perceived to be most vulnerable to disasters. Hence, this study uses a multiple approach to identify and assess health facilities highly exposed to hazards and may be vulnerable should disaster occur. It samples 60 health facilities from twelve municipalities in the GAMA area for the assessment. The study reveals flooding as a key threat to health facilities in the entire GAMA area but identifies Accra metropolitan area as a locality with most exposed health facilities. Furthermore, the study discovers that, many of the health facilities in GAMA are clustered in a highly vulnerable enclave of about 20 km radius and estimates that, occurrence of any \disaster within this area could affect more than twenty facilities and deny healthcare services to over two hundred thousand people. It suggests collective efforts from all stakeholders to secure and protect these facilities as priority for resilience.