Help reduce incidence of malaria-Blay
Takoradi, Feb 10, GNA - Mr. Kwesi Blay, the Deputy
Western Regional Minister, has called on District
Directors of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) to liase
with their district assemblies to plan and implement
preventive measures to curb the incidence of malaria in
the region.
He made the call when closing the 2006 Annual
Performance Review Meeting of the Regional GHS at
Takoradi on Friday.
Mr. Blay expressed concern about the high incidence of
the disease in the region and said statistics indicated
that the disease accounted for 45.5 per cent of
out-patient attendance, 38.1 per cent of hospital
admission and 18.6 per cent of hospital deaths in the
region.
"With this alarming statistics, malaria is undoubtedly
the number one cause of morbidity and mortality in the
region", he said.
Mr. Blay commended the GHS for the timely manner in
which it handled reported cases of yellow fever in the
Wassa Amenfi West and Juabeso districts.
He expressed the hope that the GHS would continue to
maintain the same level of surveillance to ensure that
new diseases are detected and prevented before they
reach epidemic proportion.
Mr. Blay spoke about allegations of fraud and sabotage
by health workers against clients of the National Health
Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
He said although investigations by the Regional
Directorate of the GHS could not hold any individual
health worker culpable, health workers in the region
should endeavour to live above reproach.
Dr. Sylvester Anemana, the Regional Director of Health,
said districts in the region did not have adequate
health human resources.
He said it is becoming extremely difficult to transfer
health personnel from one area to another.
Dr. Anemana said a total of 65 cases of leprosy were
reported from 10 out of the 13 districts in the region
in 2006 as against 64 cases in 2005.
He said the top 10 causes of hospital admissions in the
region were malaria, anaemia, diarrhoea diseases,
pregnancy related complications and hernia.
The rest are hypertension, abortion, pneumonia,
gynaecological disorders and cellulite.
Nana Edu Agyeman IV, Omanhene of Mankessim Traditional
Area who is the Chairman of the Regional Health
Committee, urged all health providers in the region to
demonstrate a high sense of professionalism in the
discharge of their duties.
He said health managers should ensure that all staff of
the service in the region respects the policies,
regulations and procedures of the GHS.
Nana Agyeman said a mechanism is in place to sanction
any staff who misconducts himself.
He called on health professionals and stakeholders to
join hands with the government to strengthen and improve
the health delivery system through the NHIS.
Nana Agyeman appealed to managers of the scheme and
health staff and stakeholders to eschew greed, avarice
and politics to make the scheme a national issue.
GNA
