The majority of the symptoms reported in the household surveys could be due to the period of the year in which the survey was conducted. This was during the harmattan period when a lot of fever and cough symptoms are reported due to the weather conditions.

It is gratifying to note that majority of the people consulted a health facility when they were ill. It has been assumed that the first point of call for community members who are ill is a pharmacy or chemical seller shop but the results obtained here disproves that notion.

The proportion of consultations that resulted in the prescription of drugs (95.1) confirms the anecdote that for every ill there is a pill. The Ghanaian population is used to being given medicines anytime they visit a health facility and if they are not given medicines they tend to feel that the doctor is not a good doctor, this is probably why the number of consultations that resulted in a prescription were so high.

As was found in the health facility and private medicines outlet surveys the main barriers to access are affordability and availability and this has been discussed extensively. Incomes are not too high and this makes healthcare unaffordable to most people since they have to pay out of pocket at the point of service delivery.

Patients' knowledge on taking prescribed medication has a bearing on whether the patient would take the medication or not. The facility surveys show that adequate information is not given to patients on the importance of taking all their medicines and this is reflected in the household surveys where one in every five patients did not take the full course of prescribed drug.

It is well noted that the percentage of family income being used on medicines is too high and this has received considerable attention by government who is doing all it can to improve access to healthcare for its people.