UPPER EAST GHS WANTS MORE OUTREACH PROGRAMMES (Mirror, Saturday, June 21, 2009. PAGE 37)

From Benjamin Xornam Glover,
Bolgatanga
Dr James Akpablie, Deputy Upper East Regional Director in Charge of Public Health of the Ghana Health Service has made a passionate appeal to Faith- based organisations and other stakeholders in the health sector to sponsor specialists outreach programmes in the region.
Dr Akpablie made the appeal when the President of the Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD), the social service wing of the Anglican Communion in the United States of America, Mr Robert Radtke called on him at Bolgatanga.
Mr Radtke was in the region at the invitation of the Anglican Diocesan Development and Relief Organisation (ADDRO), which runs a Malaria Control Programme, dubbed Nets for life, to assess how well the programme was doing.
The delegation was led by the Executive Director of ADDRO, Very Rev. Dr Jacob Ayeebo and other officers of the organisation.
The Upper East Region has crisis in terms of the strength of medical personnel especially doctors. Available records state that though there are 27 medical doctors in the region, many of them are administrators leaving only nine as actually practicing in the health facilities to cater for a population of about 1.1 million people of the region.
Each of the five district hospitals has just one doctor, while the Bolgatanga Regional Hospital has only three doctors. Their services are complemented by the services of the Cuban Medical Brigade.
According to the Deputy Regional Director, in the area of specialist’s service, the region can only boast of one obstetrician and gynaecologist, one surgeon, a dentist and two eye specialists.
This, he intimated, was woefully inadequate adding that under the present circumstances one of the ways out is to hold regular out-reach programmes to enable the people assess specialists’ services.
He, therefore, called on organisations such as ADDRO to take up the challenge and sponsor such specialists outreach programmes to render services for the people.
Mr Radtke for his part underscored the need for greater collaboration between faith- based organisations and government agencies in the delivery of services. He said his outfit was impressed with the work in Ghana so far and pledged that more efforts would be put in the operation of the malaria control programme in Ghana.
The team had earlier paid a courtesy call on the Deputy Upper East Regional Minister, Mrs Lucy Awuni, who expressed gratitude to ADDRO and the ERD for their work in Ghana.

DOCTORS REFUSE POSTING TO UPPER EAST REGION (D/G, Friday, June 19, 2009. SPREAD)

NO medical doctor has for the past three years accepted posting to the Upper East Region, while the handful of doctors and other health service providers available are seeking for transfer to other parts of the country.
According to the Regional Director of Health Services, Dr John Koku Awoonor-Williams, none of the nine doctors posted to the region in 2007 accepted the offer.
He said in 2008, all the nine doctors posted failed to turn up, adding that as of February this year, none of them had accepted the posting.
Dr Awoonor-Williams disclosed this at a stakeholders’ forum held in Bolgatanga for District Managers of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), service providers and beneficiaries of the scheme.
The forum was to assess the performance of the scheme and service providers and to know the complaints and obstacles faced by the registered members of the scheme in accessing health care with their cards.
Dr Awoonor-Williams said in the midst of inadequate doctors and allied health providers, the health sector in the region was also faced with massive request for transfers by the few remaining, with 95 per cent of all those applying for transfers being indigenes of the region.
He said the health directorate had resorted to appealing to the conscience of those applying for transfers to encourage them to stay back and assist in the health delivery service in the region.
Touching on other challenges facing the smooth operation of the NHIS in the region, Dr Awoonor-Williams said delays in presenting claims by health facilities and other service providers continued to be a major problem to the scheme.
He also cited the deplorable state of most structures at the facilities and appealed to the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) to as a matter of responsibility help in expanding and rehabilitating them and also adding new ones.
Dr Awoonor-Williams noted that in spite of these challenges, the scheme had been able to enrol 71 per cent of the people in the region out of a population of one million and said with the necessary support more people would be registered with the scheme.
He said there had been situations where some service providers had threatened to withhold services because the NHIA had not settled its indebtedness to them.
The regional director warned that nobody had the right to close down any public facility and said the Ghana Health Service and the Ministry of Health would deal drastically with any officer who violated the laws.
The Upper East Regional Manager of the NHIS, Mr Roger Ayine Aposs, said the abuse of the system by families and registered beneficiaries, the poor and dilapidating state of office accommodation, the refusal of pharmaceutical and chemical shops under the scheme to give out drugs to scheme members due to the low price offered for the drugs by the various schemes, were some of the challenges being faced in the region.
Mr Aposs said the NHIA had released GHҐ6,707,745.95 as reinsurance and first and second quarter subsidy to the scheme in the region.
Madam Freda Bartels Mensah, Procurement Manager of NHIA, said efforts were being made to introduce electronic systems into the use of NHIS identity cards by beneficiaries.
She said the NHIA would take into consideration appeals for support for health facilities to make them conducive for use by registered members of the scheme.
The Deputy Upper East Regional Minister, Mrs Lucy Awuni, who chaired the function, said in spite of overwhelming challenges, the NHIS had stood on its feet and charged the managers to work on the challenges facing them to help provide quality service for the people.

TRAINEE NURSES WEEK IN BOLGA (SHOWBIZ, Thursday, June 18, 2009. PAGE 9)

By Benjamin Xornam Glover

Miss Lois Morrison, was crowned Miss GNMTA 2009 in a beauty pageant organised by the students of the Bolgatanga Nursing Training College and the Midwifery Training School.
The event formed part of activities marking the students’ week celebration of the two health training institutions. GNMTA is an acronym for the Ghana Nurses and Midwife Trainees Association.
For her prize, Miss Morrison took away a 24-inch television set. Miss Nab Betila Alswell a second year student, became the first runner-up and took home a gas cooker and cylinder, whilst Miss Nancy Ndenab, a third year student placed third and was given a rice cooker.
Consolation prizes of pressing irons were given to those who placed fourth to the eigth position. The contestants, besides answering general questions relating to health and social issues such as HIV/AIDS and environmental cleanliness also put up dance performances to highlife, hip life and old school songs.
The well attended programme held at the forecourt of Celebrity Night Club at Bolgatanga was spiced with various dance performances by amateur groups. The low points of the night, however, were the rather long breaks in between performances and the unnecessarily long commentaries from the two MCs for the night, which dragged the programme till the wee hours of Sunday.
The theme for the week-long SRC celebration was “Promoting Quality Health Care, a challenge to a student nurse”. A number of activities were held by the student body to mark the event. It includes public education both on radio and in selected Junior and Senior High Schools in the Bolgatanga municipality.

Woyongo urges MDCE to lead modest lifestyles(D/G Monday, June 15, 2009. Page 36

The Upper East Regional Minister, Mark Woyongo has administered the Official Oath, oath of allegiance and oath of secrecy to Municipal and District Chief Executives in the region.
He urged them to lead modest lifestyles and work hard at achieving the goals of the government.
Mr. Woyongo also admonished them to develop a healthy working relationship with the various stakeholders in the Assembly, especially the MP, Assembly and Presiding Members, the Coordinating Directors and Heads of Departments in the district, as well as Traditional rulers and other opinion leaders and NGOs, to accelerate development in their respective districts.

UE TEACHERS RESCIND DECISION TO WEAR RED BANDS (D/G, Monday, June 15, 2009. PAGE 14)

TEACHERS in the Upper East Region have rescinded their decision to wear red bands to work as a warning to the government to expedite action on the implementation of the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS).
In an interview with the Daily Graphic at Bolgatanga, the Regional Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Mr Linus Cofie Attey, explained that the decision followed assurances from the government that the SSSS would be implemented in January, next year.
“Following our press conference, we were called to Accra for a meeting by the leadership of GNAT and it was at that meeting that a decision was taken for us to hold on as steps were being taken by the government for the implementation of the SSSS”, he said.
Mr Attey urged all teachers in the region to exercise restraint and go about their normal duties while the government took measures to have the policy implemented.
On Monday, June 1, 2009, the leadership of GNAT in the region announced that the teachers had decided to were red bands to work to express their frustration at what they termed “The feet dragging on the part of the government in the implementation of the SSSS”.
The teachers, therefore, threatened that any further delay in solving the salary issues would lead to another action that was yet to be determined.

RICE PROCESSING GROUP CRIES FOR HELP (MIRROR, Saturday, June 13,2009 , PAGE 27)

From Benjamin Xornam Glover,
Zuarungu

The Coordinator of the Single Mothers Association,(SMA) a Bolgatanga-based local women's organisation, Ms Stella Abagre has underlined the importance of giving protection to locally produced commodities against the invasion of imported ones, often produced at subsidised cost.
“We are convinced that the rice industry can deliver meaningful local employment and decent income for our communities that produce them if given the needed support’ said Ms Abagre whose group was into rice processing.
Apart from rice processing, members of the association who are made up of divorcees and single mothers are into several activities including, basket weaving, sheabutter processing, social awareness training, amongst others.
Due to the lack of market, tonnes of rice neatly packaged are lying in the stores. She, therefore, stressed that if government could incorporate the use of local rice in interventions such as the School Feeding Programme, it would also help generate employment for the community members since they would be engaged in farming, processing and packaging of the produce as well as offer high quality and nutritious meals to the children.
Ms Abagre made these comments when the Upper East Regional Minister, Mr Mark Woyongo and his Deputy Mrs Lucy Awuni visited the Rice Milling Project of the group at Zuarungu, near Bolgatanga.
In her welcoming address, Ms Abagre said the SMA was set up in 1998 to negate cultural and traditional practices that have rendered unmarried women frustrated and dejected in the society.
She said activities of the SMA include income generation, advocacy and family life education. She added that with support from Oxfam, a British non-governmental organisation, a rice processing machine was acquired for the SMA to help improve the quality of locally produced rice in the region.
Ms Abagre also added that apart from difficulties in accessing markets for the products, the SMA was confronted with problems in accessing credit from financial institutions to run their businesses, and appealed to government for assistance.
The Upper East Regional Minister, Mr Mark Woyongo said it was government's desire to reduce poverty through the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority, adding that the programme was meant to help vulnerable groups such as the SMA.
He told the women who are also into shea butter processing that a Sheanut Development Baord would be established to develop, process and market the produce for export.
The regional minister announced that the government was reorganising the School Feeding Programme to fine tune it and ensure that suppliers source their purchases from the local market.
“The price of polish rice may be cheap but the nutritional value is very high. We will do all in our power to ensure higher patronage of the local rice”, Mr Woyongo said.
Mr Woyongo acknowledged the difficulties of the group in accessing paddy rice for milling and said this year; “government is going to embark on a serious rice cultivation in the Fumbisi Valley to make paddy rice available and affordable for processing”.
He also said the Irrigation Company of the Upper Region would also be supported to produce enough paddy rice for milling.
This he explained would go a long way in beating down the cost of production and subsequently make their produce competitive on the local market.
He also recommended to the leadership of SMA the services of the Export Development and Investment Fund (EDIF), and urged them to explore that possibility in seeking assistance to expand their business.

HELP FIND SOLUTION TO TOMATO GLUT IN UPPER EAST (D/G Monday, June 15,2009 PAGE 36)

“TOMATO glut hits Upper East Region”… “Veep sympathises with Tomato Farmers”… “Farmer commits suicide over tomato glut”…. “Upper East tomato farmers in crisis”.
These are a few headlines that were splashed on the pages of newspapers in the country in the recent past. The headlines discussed one major theme—The annual tomato glut that faces the region almost every year.
More than 80 per cent of farmers in the region are engaged in tomato farming. However, every year, the region faces a tomato glut with its attendant low prices or even lack of market for the produce.
Large quantities of tomatoes produced by the hardworking farmers at Tono, Vea, Pwalugu and other farming communities in the region often go bad for lack of market.
Tomato glut in the Upper East Region has been an annual phenomenon because the farmers do not have reliable markets for their produce. Ironically, the main buyers, known as “market queens” from the southern parts of Ghana who are constantly in unending battles to have better prices, find unorthodox means of constantly exploiting the farmers by delaying the buying of the produce.
Although there is a tomato factory at Pwalugu in the region, christened the Northern Star Tomato factory, which is owned and managed by the Ministry of Trade and Industry, lack of funds has been identified as the main problem hindering its full operation. This year for instance, the management of the factory complained that there was no money to purchase the produce thereby putting both the factory and the farmers in an unpleasant situation.
Between February and March, this year, the annual tomato glut phenomenon was recorded and as usual the farmers made the noise to draw the government’s attention to the problem. Some even went to the extent of committing suicide just because they could not withstand the agony of seeing their investments go down the drain.
In view of the problem, the Vice President, His Excellency John Mahatma, visited the region to intervene and within a short period of time, a short term solution was found to the problem.
As an immediate step towards ensuring stable market for the produce, Vice President Mahama said his office would liaise with the Minister of Food and Agriculture and the Minister of Trade and Industries to assist the factory with a capital injection to boost tomato production in the area.
After a tour of the factory, Mr Mahama stressed the need for a feasibility study of the Pwalugu Tomato Factory to enable the government to determine how best it would intervene to keep the factory running all-year-round.
He gave the assurance that he would visit the area again at a future date with the Minister of Food and Agriculture and the Minister of Trade and Industries for detailed assessment of the facility before any definite decisions could be taken.
The Vice President pledged the government’s determination to institute prudent measures to encourage tomato production and processing in the region as part of a long-term plan to create sustainable jobs for the people.
Three months have passed since the Vice President visited the area to assess the tomato glut, yet some stakeholders in the tomato industry seem to have no clue as to what is exactly happening.
During an interaction with a group of tomato farmers in Navrongo recently, they expressed fears that if a solution is not found to the problem, that is, restructuring the factory before the start of the tomato farming season, people were likely to return to the gloomy days of the past where farmers spent huge sums of money in the production of tomatoes only for the produce to go waste because there was no reliable market for them.
Available information has it that the tomato farming season in the Upper East Region starts from August and ends in January. While peasant farmers would start nursing their seedlings in August and transplant them in September, those engaged in commercial farming would start their nurseries in September and transplant them in October.
Checks at the factory, the two ministries concerned in the region and random interviews with some farmers in the region have all drawn blanks.
The Farms Operations Manager of Northern Star Tomato Factory, Mr Kwabena Darkwah, was unable to say what immediate steps had been taken.
He, however, stated that his bosses in Accra were still discussing the way forward for the factory after the visit of the Vice President.
When the National President of the National Farmers and Fishermen Award Winners Association, Mr Philip Abayori, was contacted on the issue on phone, he confirmed that a delegation of farmers had met with the Ministry of Trade and Industry on a proposal that farmers would want to acquire about 30 per cent shares in the factory.
He said for now, they had been made to believe that the government had agreed in principle to collaborate with the farmers in their bid to acquire shares in the factory.
Mr Abayori stated that they (farmers) were working out the modalities because it was their belief that if famers were represented on the board, their interests would be protected and at the end of the day, the annual hullabaloo of tomato glut would be a thing of the past.
He dismissed assertions that there was foot dragging, adding that there was goodwill on the part of the ministry and for that matter the government.
Mr Abayori also expressed the hope that sooner than later some positive news would be heard.” There is no cause for alarm”, he assured.
For now farmers in the region, especially the tomato farmers, have only one plea, and that is, the various stakeholders should act fast in restoring the factory to respond to the marketing needs of their produce.
When it goes into full operation, the factory could also offer employment opportunities for the region’s teeming youth. A stitch in time saves nine.