Accessing healthcare in Ghana: Challenges encountered and strategies adopted by persons with disabilities in accra

Purpose: Access to quality and timely healthcare is essential to the health and wellbeing of all individuals. Unfortunately, the more vulnerable populations, such as persons with disabilities, encounter a number of barriers in accessing healthcare services. This study focusses on barriers that persons with disabilities face in accessing healthcare in the Accra metropolis, and the strategies they adopt when they are ill. Method: A phenomenological approach was employed to achieve a deeper and holistic understanding of the challenges encountered when accessing healthcare. Purposive sampling technique was used to recruit 21 persons with disabilities, between 18 and 64 years of age, from the organisations of per sons with disabilities in Accra. Results: The study revealed that physical, financial, communication, transportation, and attitudinal barriers, as well as healthcare professionals’ lack of knowledge about disability issues, limited access of persons with disabilities to healthcare. The majority of persons with disabilities preferred to stay at home and self-medicate or depend on herbal medicine, rather than seek help from healthcare professionals. Conclusion: Healthcare for all is a right that every human being is entitled to, irrespective of disability. The removal of barriers restricting access to healthcare for persons with disabilities is a necessity to achieve Goal 3 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Agenda 2030.