Friday, 12th August, 2022

Page 8
Health
DAILY ANALYST Friday, 12th August, 2022
Mr Clifford Vengkumgmene,
the
Sissala East Municipal
Director
of Health Services,
has said the Municipality
had been hit by a high incidence
of malaria infections despite
several interventions.
He said the sensitisation,
distribution of long-lasting insecticide
nets, and the Seasonal
Malaria Chemoprevention, notwithstanding,
malaria topped
the list of Out Patients Department
(OPD) cases in the area.
“If you take the OPD attendance,
you will see malaria being
among the top 10 and if you aggregate
all, the malaria cases top
Lifenet International, a
faith-based nonprofit,
has supported two
health facilities of the
Catholic Church in the
Volta Region.
The NGO, on Tuesday
presented medical equipment
including delivery beds,
sterilizers, suction machines,
and drip stands, to the St. Francis
Clinic at Saviefe Agorkpo, and
the St. George Polyclinic at Liati.
Mr Idris Buabeng, Country
Director of the Organisation,
said while presenting the items,
that the donation was to help
the facilities enhance delivery,
and that the medical tools would
help increase facility capacity,
enhance minor surgeries and
other technical care.
He said addressing gaps in
essential medical equipment
formed part of the focus of
the Organisation, which had
committed to supporting facility
budgets for medical equipment.
“The facilities would now
have freedom to re-dedicate
that budget to others including
quality management and other
essential needs,” the Country
Director noted.
Lifenet International,
headquartered in the United
States of America, also provides
capacity enhancement for the
health staff of the facilities
it supports, and has online
learning systems to help meet
its goal of quality health care.
The Organisation also
the list of OPD top 10 cases, and
it is in all our facilities,” he said.
Mr Vengkumgmene, in a
presentation during the Mid-
Year Health Sector Performance
Review at Tumu in the Upper
West Region, said a total of 5,588
OPD attendance, representing
18.8 per cent of 29,660 for the
year 2022, were malaria cases.
He said in 2020 malaria came
second with 6,695, representing
24.6 per cent of the OPD attendance,
and was still second in
2021, with 6,585, representing
23.6 per cent.
He said this made the infection
an area that required additional
attention to contain in the
Municipality but commended
Sissala East Health Directorate
worried over high malaria cases
the staff and management of
the health sector for teamwork,
which had led to some gains
made.
Mr Vengkumgmene said Sissala
East was among the highest
performing districts using the
key performance indicators and
had received awards for three
consecutive years – 2019, 2020,
and 2021.
“I have accepted the challenge
to maintain the position
every single year. I was initially
scared but with the staff’s support,
we shall sustain the gains,”
he noted.
He explained that the sector
had performed well using the
key performance indicators,
with Ante-natal attendance
being 98.7 per cent against a
target of 80 per cent, whilst
Family Planning was 41 per cent
against a 40 per cent target of
40 per cent, skilled delivery was
89.7 per cent against a target of
60 per cent.
“The maternal mortality
ratio stood at 66 per cent of
100,000 live births meaning we
recorded one maternal death in
April, which is unfortunate, we
will work on that and change
it, no woman should die giving
birth,” Mr Vengkumgmene
observed.
Two health facilities supported
with essential medical equipment
helps ensure quality facility
management and has periodic
training and monitoring visits
to that effect.
It established presence in
Ghana in 2021, and had since
supported 25 health facilities,
nine of which belongs to the
Catholic Church.
Mr Buabeng said Lifenet
plans to reach out to 96 health
centres nationwide within the
period of three years.
Hanson Torde, Diocesan
Health Director, commended
the Organisation for aiding the
Region, and said the support
helped sustain the shared
responsibility outlook of health
delivery.
He said the two facilities
recorded commendable
performance, and that the
support would help them deliver
more to clients and promised
that the Diocese would ensure
the equipment was wellmaintained.
The Diocesan Health Director
appealed to traditional leaders to
support health workers posted to
their areas, to help address the
deficiency of professional health
staff in rural areas.
Edwin Keteku, Administrator
of the St. Francis Clinic, a 24-bed
facility, said the donation was
timely as the cost of healthcare
delivery escalated due to
inflation.
He said the IGF of lower
health facilities had come under
constraint as a result, and that
with the support, quality health
delivery would be made more
affordable and sustainable.
He mentioned inadequate
transport, water and electricity
supply, medicines, and consumables,
and poor communications
services as challenges facing the
directorate and called for government’s
assistance in those areas.
He urged the National Health
Insurance Authority to reimburse
the facility of its claims as
early as possible.
Mr Yakubu Fuseini Batong,
the Sissala East Municipal Chief
Executive, entreated all other
departments to emulate the Mid-
Mrs Florence
Hagan, the
Greater Accra
Regional
Population
Officer, has urged the
government to prioritise
Reproductive Health Rights and
Choices to control population
growth in the country.
She said addressing
reproductive health issues like
family planning, early marriage
and childbirth and teenage
pregnancies would help achieve
the Sustainable Development
Goal three.
Mrs Hagan said population
growth, especially in the Greater
Accra Region had put a lot of
pressure on the limited resources
and infrastructure, which called
for urgent action.
She said this in Accra at a
press briefing to commemoration
this year’s World Population Day
(WPD) on the national theme:
“Prioritizing rights and choices;
harnessing opportunities, the
road to a resilient future for all.”
The global theme for this
year’s WPD: “A world of eight
billion: towards a resilient future
for all, harnessing opportunities
and ensuring rights and choices,”
seek to draw attention to the
world population growth
expected to hit about eight
billion by the end of this year.
The global event is
commemorated on July 11.
The 2021 Population Census
revealed that Greater Accra
population increased from
4,010,054 in 2010 to 5,455,692 in
202
Ṫhe figure makes Accra
the most populous in Ghana,
overtaking Ashanti region since
1970.
Greater Accra Region,
she stated, was becoming
overpopulated as a result of high
level of in-migration from other
regions and immigration from
neighbouring countries, which
needed urgent attention.
The 2014 Survey on
Demographic and Health shows
that the total fertility rate is
2.8 children per woman in the
country.
Mrs Hagan said the fertility
Year Performance Review of the
Ghana Health Service, saying:
“If all the departments undertake
this exercise, things will be
better.”
He asked the Municipal
Health Director to furnish the
Assembly with the needs of the
Directorate to be included in
their programmes adding that
the Tumu Hospital Children`s
Ward, which had been closed
over structural defects, was one
of the critical focuses of the
Assembly.
Ghana government urged to
prioritise reproductive rights
to control population growth
rate attested to that fact that the
region’s youthful age structure
was largely as a result of
migration and urbanisation.
“We need to be concern about
Ghana’s youthful population
because they represent the
economic workforce driving the
economy,” she said.
She said Ghana achieving a
demographic dividend required
that the country understood
the size and distribution of
its population, its current and
projected age structure and the
pace of population growth.
The situation, she
emphasised, meant national
needs must be matched with
a sequence of short, medium
and long-term investments
that guaranteed the rights of all
the citizenry to enjoy access to
sectors of development.
She called on relevant
authorities to add their voices to
promote policies, programmes
and legislation to end child
marriage, reduce teenage
pregnancies and support
evidence-based and girl-centred
investments to empower them
with information on their
health rights.
Dr Farida Njelba Abdulai, the
Acting Greater Accra Deputy
Director, Public Health, Ghana
Health Service, said as the world
population got to eight billion, it
was necessary to prioritise the
number of children to have for
proper care.
“As health service, we work
to ensure that family planning
services are safe, acceptable,
affordable, effective and
geographically accessible for
all,” she said.
To improve financial access,
she said the National Health
Insurance Authority this
year approved the use of the
Authority’s card to access family
planning services to increase the
uptake of the services.
Some of the participants
urged the leadership of the
National Population Council
to liaise with the religious
leaders to educate the public on
reproductive issues, especially
with family planning.