Out of the 15 Municipal and District Health Directorates across the Upper East Region, Bongo has been adjudged the best performing district in delivering quality healthcare services in 2021 by the Upper East Regional Health Directorate.
Mr Stephen Bordotsiah, Bongo District Director, Ghana Health Service, disclosed this to the Ghana News Agency in an interview in Bongo.
The recognition was in respect to the sterling performance of the district in offering healthcare to the people, recording growth in most of the health indicators despite the impact of the coronavirus disease pandemic.
Bongo
Mr Bordotsiah said although three maternal deaths were recorded in 2021 as against two in 2020, skilled delivery in the district improved from 83.2 per cent in 2019, 82.9 per cent in 2020 to 90.2 per cent in 2021 and attributed the success to a number of interventions being implemented.
He said apart from posting health workers to all the 58 functional Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) zones in the district despite only 28 having compounds to administer health services to the people, a maternity improvement package was instituted to motivate the midwives by giving 10 per cent of the cost of the total deliveries to the midwives.
This, he said, had not only encouraged the midwives to give off their best but improved the client-service provider relationship.
“We encourage the midwives to do follow-ups on their women and all pregnant women within the district have been registered and even those who have not come to the facilities, the community health nurses register them in their homes, follow up and encourage them to visit the health facilities so that they can be tracked and monitored till they deliver,” he added.
COVID-19
On vaccine-preventable diseases, the District Director noted that the district improved on its Pentavalent coverage from 94.8 per cent in 2019, 111.6 per cent in 2020 to 117.2 per cent in 2021 while 58.1 per cent of the population has been fully vaccinated against the COVID-19 pandemic.
Malaria
Although malaria cases continued to top the lists of Out Patient Department attendance with 34,021 cases in 2021, no death had been recorded since 2019 when only one death was recorded.
Tuberculosis
Mr Bordotsiah explained that due to intensified surveillance and awareness creation, the district had improved its detection of cases of Tuberculosis recording 60 cases in 2019, 89 in 2020 and 90 cases in 2021.
Healthcare delivery
The District Director who reiterated the commitment of management and staff of the health in the district to continue to work to provide quality healthcare services, mentioned infrastructure and means of transport for health workers particularly the community health nurses as major challenges affecting productivity.
He said apart from the fact that 57 per cent of the CHPS zones did not have compounds compelling community health nurses to commute from their various homes to the communities on daily basis, some of the existing facilities were in a deplorable state and needed urgent renovation.
He said 96.8 per cent of OPD attendance in the district were enrolled on the National Health Insurance Scheme, however, “with the Insurance owing most facilities in areas over six months, it is really challenging to meet the needs of the clients.”
