New Juaben South improves healthcare delivery
The New Juaben South Municipal Health Directorate in the Eastern Region last year made a significant improvement in health delivery services.
Its overall performance in 2021 was far better than that of 2020.
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The Municipal Health Director, Dr Edmund Ekow Kaitoo, said such successes placed the municipality in the fourth position of health service delivery in the region.
Providing data on the successes chalked up, Dr Kaitoo said teenage pregnancy recorded a figure of 327, which increased to 395 in 2020 but decreased to 325 in 2021.
According to him, teenage deliveries totalled 582 in 2019, decreased to 559 in 2020 and further decreased to 519 in 2021, while abortion among teenagers which was 219 in 2019, decreased to 175 in 2020 and maintained the same figure in 2021.
Dr Kaitoo, who expressed satisfaction about the performance of the staff, was speaking at the municipality's 2021 performance review meeting in Koforidua on March 18. He said postnatal care, which was 907 in 2019, increased to 1,248 in 2020 and 1,641 in 2021.
Review meeting
The annual performance review meeting was on the theme: "Improving maternal and child health in the midst of COVID-19: The Role of Stakeholders." It was attended by staff of the various health facilities within the municipality.
It was to take stock of activities in the various health facilities in 2021 and plan ahead for the following year with the view of addressing the challenges identified for further improvement.
He said family planning services also rose from 581 in 2019 to 678 in 2020 and 684 in 2021.
On child welfare services, Dr Kaitoo told the gathering that 1,073 children were treated in 2019 for various ailments, which reduced to 1, 030 in 2020 and increased to 1, 510 in 2021.
Inadequate funding
Dr Kaitoo added that ever since that period (March 2021) most of the health facilities had not received any payment at all.
Such a situation, Dr Kaitoo stated, had compelled the health facilities to rely on their internally generated funds (IGF) to operate.
He said government funding was not forthcoming and that had also been a major challenge for management of the health facilities.
Dr Kaitoo called for the construction of Community Health and Planning Services (CHPS) compounds for communities such as Trom, Bornya and Simpoamensa and proper accommodation for CHPS compounds that had been operating in improper structures.
He commended the staff of the various health facilities for working hard to achieve all that in 2021, stressing that their contributions to providing healthcare services to the people cannot be underestimated.
Don't get pregnant
The New Juaben South Municipal Education Director, Mr Victor De-Graft Etsison, who was the chairman of the event, raised a major concern about the rate at which young girls were allowing themselves to be impregnated by young boys who could not take good care of them.
According to him, the Ghana Education Service (GES), in collaboration with the Ghana Health Service (GHS), had developed a comprehensive policy where girls who got pregnant and had given birth would be able to attend school.
Mr De-Graft urged parents to take good care of their female children to enable them to climb the highest academic ladder without getting pregnant.
