Health care delivery in the Upper East under threat

Dr John Koku Awoonor-Williams

Performance indicators have shown that health care delivery in the Upper East Region has over the past years achieved some appreciable feat in terms of access to health especially in deprived communities of the region.

The region in the year under review has chalked up some successes in the area of adolescent and family health, disease surveillance, Malaria and HIV and AIDS, supervised delivery, new born care and institutional maternal mortality among other indicators. For instance with regards to institutional mortality, the region is said to have recorded the lowest in the country.

Despite these enviable achievements, theft of medical equipment and harassment of health staff has become a worrying trend affecting the effective delivery of health services in the region.

The Regional Director of Health Service, Dr John Koku Awoonor–Williams disclosed this at the Region’s Health Sector Half Year Performance Review Meeting in Bolgatanga.

The meeting was attended by dignitaries including the Director General of the Ghana Health Services, Dr. Ebenezer Appiah Denkyirah, health workers as well as representatives of development partners and NGOs.

Speaking on the Theme" Implementation of Adolescent Health Services: The Role of Community Health Workers, the Deputy Upper East Regional Minister, Daniel Syme, commended the various health staff and community health volunteers for their dedicated service in bringing quality health care to the door step of the people.

Mr Syme, seized the opportunity to assure the directorate that efforts will be made to stem the tide of theft and harassment on health staff and called for effective collaboration by stakeholders and community members.


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