Dr Timothy Letsa (left) presenting a citation to Ms Catherine Abena Adobea for emerging the best worker for 2018
Dr Timothy Letsa (left) presenting a citation to Ms Catherine Abena Adobea for emerging the best worker for 2018

Oti Region to have two hospitals

The newly created Oti Region will be provided with two hospitals to promote quality healthcare delivery in the area.

The Volta Regional Minister, Dr Archibald Yao Letsa, who made this known during the Volta regional annual health sector performance review conference in Ho, stated that plans were far advanced to construct the two hospitals at the Oti regional capital, Dambai, and Kpassa in the Nkwanta North District.

That, he said, was one of the steps the government was embarking on this year to improve upon the infrastructural needs of the people and address the health challenges of the people within the catchment area.

The annual review conference brought together heads of agencies of the Ministry of Health, related institutions and all relevant stakeholders to evaluate the performance of the health sector in the region in the past year and to identify strategies to improve the delivery of quality health care towards the attainment of the health sector objectives.

CHPS compounds

The minister indicated that the government was also undertaking the construction of CHPS compounds through the district assemblies in the Volta and Oti regions to address the issue of lack of health in deprived communities.

Touching on the human resource in the health sector, Dr Letsa said the government was determined to engage over 20,000 bonded nurses in spite of the limited fiscal space to improve availability of health professionals across the country.

“In 2017 alone, the government engaged 16,000 nurses minus other health professionals such as doctors, anaesthetists among others,” he said, adding that that demonstrated the commitment of the government towards the health sector.

He called on health authorities to take concrete measures to tackle the problem of mal-distribution of health professionals in the country.

The regional minister commended the health staff in deprived rural communities who went through difficult challenges to provide quality care to the rural folks.

Decline in health outcomes

The Volta Regional Director of the Ghana Health Service, Dr Timothy Letsa, disclosed that the region recorded a decline in institutional under-five mortality, maternal mortality, stillbirth, under-five malaria case fatality and teenage pregnancy.

The health directorate, he stated, was, however, still faced with high cost of delivery in about 350 hard-to-reach communities in six districts mostly in the Oti Region, lack of laboratory facilities in most health centres, high indebtedness to supplies and increasing non-communicable diseases such as hypertension and diabetes among others.

According to him, this year, the directorate would focus on promoting innovations in ICT, intensifying efforts towards settling all debts to suppliers, improving medicine availability and improving documentation of services.

The regional health director said the directorate intended to collaborate with other actors within and without the health sector to undertake computerisation of hospital services, especially for facilities that were not yet ‘ICT compliant’.

The Ho Municipal Hospital emerged the best facility in the region and a midwife at Krachi Nchumuru, Ms Catherine Abena Adobea, was also adjudged the Best Worker for 2018.

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