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| Sherry Ayittey, Minister for Health |
The 2012
Northern Regional health performance review meeting has been organized in
Tamale as shortage of critical health personnel continued to be cited amongst
the region’s list of major issues that are likely to derail the few gains made
in healthcare delivery in recent years.
Over the last decade, the region had
been one of the few places in Ghana, where many health personnel including
doctors, nurses, pharmacists and midwives refused postings to go and work,
often citing lack of peace and insecurity as some of the reasons.
Even though quite recently a lot of
measures had been put in place to avert some of the major health problems in
the area, especially maternal and infant deaths that had put the region ahead
of the rest of the country, many targets by the regional health directorate
seemed unachievable as some of the problems still exist.
However, delivering an address on the
state of the health sector in the region at this year’s performance review
meeting under the theme: “Addressing the challenges of Maternal and
Child Health Services –The Role of Quality Health Data”, the Northern
Regional Director of Health Service Dr. Akwasi Twumasi, bewailed the low number
of doctors, nurses, pharmacists, midwives and laboratory technicians in the
area, describing the situation as the region’s biggest issue.
The region currently has over 20
districts and a population more than 1 million, but according to Dr. Twumasi
only 24 medical doctors were at post. In addition to this figure, 18 Cuban
doctors were also in the region with 8 of them at the University for
Development Studies Medical School, 6 at the Tamale Teaching Hospital and 5
with Ghana Health Service.
Although he admitted that staff strength
had increased considerably from 2,748 in 2008 to 4,210 in 2012, the number of
health facilities, he noted, had also increased over the years to the current
level of 22 hospitals, 415 CHIPS compounds (as compared to 265 in 2008) and 7
polyclinics. Adding that, unfortunately not all districts had hospitals citing
for instance Bunkpurugu-Yunyoo, Central Gonja, Nanumba South and
Sawla-Tuna-Kalba.
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| Dr. Akwasi Twumasi |
Dr. Twumasi also complained of
encroachment of landed properties of the Ghana Health Service by some
unscrupulous individuals citing for instance the Tamale Teaching Hospital,
Tamale West Hospital, Bole Hospital and Gindabuo Health Centre and appealed for
support towards securing those lands.
Incredibly, the total
out-patient-department attendance increased from 1,589,509 in 2011 to 1,815,525
in 2012 as the top cause of the OPD attendance was due to malaria which
remained almost the same at 46.6 percent for both 2011 and 2012, the regional
director mentioned.
He also disclosed that admissions due to
malaria decreased from 59.4 percent in 2011 to 43.9 percent in 2012 whereas the
deaths due to malaria increased marginally from 18.9 percent in 2011 to 19.1
percent in 2012. This according to Dr. Twumasi could be a reflection of various
interventions that were put in place including training and regular monitoring
and supervision of malaria case management.
Dr. Twumasi also disclosed that the
greatest achievement of the region was the fact that supervised delivery
continued to make a steady upward climb for the past five years saying it moved
from 61.1 percent in 2011 to 62.7 percent in 2012. Maternal deaths, he stated,
had reduced stressing that the figure had moved from 115 in 2011 to 108 in
2012. “Maternal mortality rate has moved from 188 to 130 per 100,000 live
births”, he added.
Meanwhile, the
Northern Regional Director of the Ghana Health Service appealed to
Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives to assist his outfit in
providing accommodation for staff posted to some of the districts particularly
newly created ones.
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