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Kintampo North inaugurates health management committee

The Kintampo North Municipal Health Directorate has inaugurated the Municipal Health Management Committee and held its 2019 Mid-Year Performance Review at the Kintampo Health Research Centre (KHRC) conference hall.

Date Created : 8/13/2019 7:18:21 AM : Story Author : Rufina Yuoni/Ghanadistricts.com

Madam Alice Akuah Vorleto, Municipal Health Director called for strong support and cooperation for the Health Management Committee and the Health Delivery System at large for a successful health delivery in the municipality.

Nana Dr. Boampong, Deputy Regional Director - Administration, Ghana Health Service noted that Act 525 of the Health delivery statues was passed in 1996 to decentralize health delivery and make known the composition of both the Regional and Municipal/Districts Health Management Committee. “Again, upon the constitution of the Regional Management Committee, our immediate task was to replicate the effort in all other Municipalities or districts”, Nana Dr. Boampong said.

He disclosed the membership of the Municipal Health Management Committee to comprise; the Municipal Health Director as the chairman, two members from the Municipal Assembly, a representative from Muslim groups, a member from the local Council of Churches, two health workers, one from a private institution, member(s) from Traditional Council(s) and two persons from the local Community, one woman.

Dr. Nana Boampong delivering his Inaugural Speech

Mr. John Afranie Boahen, the chairman of the Regional Health Management Committee was full of praise for the enthusiasm and the overwhelming reception accorded the inauguration of the Municipal Health Management Committee than any of the ten(10) other places he had visited.

He said the quest of decentralization in health and the formation of the committee is to improve governance in health, improve community participation and ultimately improve the health status of the municipality. “More so, in adding to the government’s decentralization drive, the core mandate of the committee was to advice the director in the performance of her duty”, he noted.

The chairman for the Regional Health management Committee tasked all members of the Municipal Committee to participate fully within their tenure of three (3) years while adding that, selection to the committee was done based on the skills, knowledge, experience and interest of the members.

He charge them to bring all these bare to improve health delivery. According to him, the health sector was unfortunately plagued with some ills and thus commitment, advocacy and conflict resolution mechanisms should be deployed to solve these ills such as poor attitude towards work. He promised to support the Municipal Health Committee and urged all to support also.

Alhaji BabaTanko a member of the committee and chairman of the committee, Nana Effah Guakro IV both promised dedicated service and selflessness to ensure an improved health delivery system. Nana Effah singularly was full of praise for Madam Alice since her assumption to office, emphasized the importance of the Municipal Health Committee and solicited support for the Health Delivery System here in Kintampo.

Mid-Year Performance Review

Dr. Apio of the Kintampo Municipal Hospital took participants through performance of the health sector for the first half of 2019 in the municipality.

He noted that the mother facility in the municipality which also serves as a referral center was plagued with problems such as delays in the reimbursement of funds from the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), lack of space for filing patient folders, inadequate computers at the medical records unit and no vehicle to work with. He announced the fact that, no maternal mortality has been recorded in the facility for three (3) years now. While bemoaning the doctor to patient ratio which stood at 1:10,428, midwives to delivery ratio also at 1:74 and a nurse to patient ratio of 1:377.

Dr. Gavin Apio Doing his Presentation on Power Point

Dr. Gavin Apio said that, as at mid-year, outpatient department attendance had increased by 7% with the number of people insured increasing by 12%. 59 deaths were recorded at the facility with 43 of them certified. Malaria also continues to prevail as the ailment both at the Out Patient Department (OPD) and cause of admissions. He regretted the rise of water and sanitation diseases with diabetes, anemia and hypertension also rising with 307, 1564 and 322 cases recorded respectively.

However, no deaths were recorded as a result of malaria with early diagnosis and reportage attributed for this. 7:1000 life birth was recorded for infant mortality. 4,739 admissions were made with gastro enteritis as second major ailment as the cause of admissions behind malaria.

The Municipal outlook was not any different as presented by Joseph Nanga of the Municipal Health Information Department. A total of 97,758 cases were recorded at the Out Patient Department (OPD) of the 42 Community Health Posted zones in the municipality. Family planning acceptors dropped from 13% to 7.2% with deliveries up to 52.8% from 48%. Private facility deliveries is also up from 4.9% to 5.2%. Hypertension and diabetes was also on the rise in the municipality, mostly among women with total still births rising from 15 to 23.

Again, the number of doctors in the municipality remains two (2). 13 Physician Assistants, 183 nurses and 30 midwives. A screening was conducted for 122 staff with 30 of them having various medical conditions. High cases of malaria and upper respiratory tract infections caused most OPD attendance with malaria and gastro enteritis as causes of admissions. A 1 to 2% prevalence rate of HIV was recorded with 5 cases of meningitis alongside 6 cases of leprosy. Here too, no institutional maternal mortality was recorded.

Inadequate flow of funds, inadequate motorbikes, volunteer fatigue, and armed robbery attacks, late or delays in reimbursement from NHIA were listed as challenges of most facilities in the municipality. Mr. Nanga also announced the inception of the Brenda/Alice Pregnancy School.

Finally, Kwame Adjei of the Kintampo Health Research Centre (KHRC) was on hand to inform the gathering of his outfit’s preparatory activities and implementation of a programme for the detection of uncontrolled hypertension at the community level as the drug list of the NHIA does not cover some hypertension drugs.

The Military Tropical team from the United States of America (U-S-A) were introduced to the gathering and their efforts appreciated. The Municipal hospital also announced plans to move to a paperless filling of patient folders.