Government to construct two new hospitals in Oti
The Government has earmarked two new hospitals to be constructed in the newly created Oti region to bring quality healthcare to the doorsteps of people in the enclave.
Dr Archibald Yao Letsa, Volta Regional Minister, who made this known at the 2018 Volta Regional Health Sector Performance Review Conference said the facilities would be built at Kpassa in the Nkwanta North District, and Dambai in the Krachi West Municipality, which is also the capital of the Oti Region.
The Minister said plans are far advanced for the projects, and expressed gratitude to development partners for supporting the initiative.
Dr Letsa said government is also prioritizing the expansion of Community Based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compounds to benefit more deprived communities in the region.
He said government would also engage over 20,000 nurses to fill human resource gaps within the health sector, and would include NABCO recruits as support staff. “I have no doubt that this would go a long way to help deal with issues of casual employees in our facilities”, Dr Letsa stated.
He said government is working to ensure effective healthcare delivery to all and gave the assurance that health insurance claims of facilities would be cleared promptly.
The Minister expressed worry about the uneven distribution of health staff and urged the Ghana Health Service to take pragmatic steps towards addressing the issue.
Dr Timothy Letsa, Volta Regional Health Director said the region recorded a steady improvement in its health indicators, particularly in institutional under 5 mortality, maternal mortality, fatalities resulting from under five malaria cases among others.
He said indicators for postnatal care coverage, skilled deliveries, live births and stillbirths all recorded positive improvements, whiles teenage pregnancy in the Region also saw a significant reduction.
The Director, however, said the Extended Programme on Immunization required more support, whiles non-communicable diseases, particularly hypertension and diabetes, which were on the rise needed to be addressed.
Source: GNA