UE HEALTH WORKERS ATTEND PERFORMANCE MEETING (PAGE 20)

THE Upper East Regional Director of Health Services Dr Koku Awoonor-Williams has stated that implementation of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in the region has resulted in the significant increase in the utilisation of health services.
According to him, out-patient attendance in the region increased from 764,817 in 2007 to 1,081,650 in 2008 while malaria continued to take the first position for OPD attendance in the region, mostly children under five years.
Dr Awoonor-Williams made this known at the 2008 annual health sector performance review meeting at Bolgatanga.
The aim of the meeting was to take stock of the past and improve upon the areas where the health personnel fell short.
The regional director, however, noted that the implementation of the scheme in the region was faced with some significant challenges.
They included delay in the submission of claims by service providers, long hours spent by clients to receive health care and delay in re-imbursement of claims by schemes to providers.
Dr Awoonor-Williams also mentioned the high indebtedness of the various schemes in the region to facilities as a major challenge that posed a threat to the NHIS and service delivery.
“Our records show that indebtedness of the various schemes in the region to facilities is over GH¢2.8 million while facilities are indebted to the Regional Medical Stores to the tune of GH¢200,000”, he said.
The regional director, therefore, urged the National Health Insurance Authority to address the problem, stressing that “as a poor and deprived region, we cannot afford to lose the health gains chalked up under the scheme in the recent past”.
Touching on the human resource problem, he said the region was faced with inadequate health personnel of all grades in the region, citing for instance that each of the five district hospitals was manned by a single doctor apart from the Cuban Medical Brigade.
According to him, while most people were not accepting posting to the region, the health personnel there were applying to leave the region daily for other regions, especially the Brong Ahafo and Greater Accra regions.
Dr Awoonor-Williams noted that none of the eight newly qualified doctors posted to the region last year resumed work, adding that over the past three years, only one out of 13 doctors posted to the region reported for duty. He said the region also lacked many critical staff members
The regional director noted with concern that out of the 35 medical assistants in the region, 22 of them were above 54 years while 74 out of the 224 nurses in the various hospitals in the region were between 55 and 60 years.
He added that 70 per cent of newly qualified nurses from the health training institutions in the region did not want to serve the area that trained them.