Awutu-Senya District records zero maternal and still birth

The Awutu-Senya District Directorate of the Ghana Health Service recorded zero maternal death and stillbirth in 2018.

Dr Mrs Patricia Lawford Antwi, the District Director of Health Services, made this known in an interview with Ghana News Agency on the sidelines of the 2018 Annual Performance Review Meeting at Awutu Bereku.

The District, located in the Central Region, has a population of 101,631 per the 2010 Housing and Population Census with a growth rate of 3.1 per cent, forming 3.9 per cent of the total population of the Region.

Dr Lawford Antwi said skilled delivery coverage of the Directorate increased from 73.8 per cent in 2017 to 81.1 per cent in 2018.

Childhood Immunisation coverage also increased from 103 per cent to 111.31 per cent during the year under review.

She said Out Patients Department (OPD) attendance increased to 0.8 in 2018 from 0.7 in 2017 with Malaria topping list of the top 10 diseases reported at the OPD.

Malaria amounted to 29,186 cases, representing 36.7 per cent, followed by Upper Respiratory Tract Infections.

Others were skin diseases, anaemia, rheumatism and other joint pains, acute tract infections and motor transport injuries coming last on the list.

Dr Lawford Antwi, however, expressed concern that despite the free family planning services supported by Marie Stopes International, there was a slight drop in family planning acceptor from 27.8 per cent in 2017 to 27 per cent in 2018.

She, therefore, encouraged people in the reproductive age group and mothers in the District to take advantage of the programme to protect themselves from unwanted pregnancies as well as space their deliveries.

On Teen Pregnancy, the Health Director said it stood at 12.3 per cent and that the Directorate had established adolescent health clubs in all the three senior high schools there as part of efforts to improve adolescent health services.

Touching on Preventive Health, Dr Lawford Antwi said 17,459 children in the District were vaccinated during the Measles Rubella National Vaccination Campaign in 2018, representing 107 per cent while the coverage of Vitamin A supplementation was 102.5 per cent.

A total of 84,147 pieces of the Long Lasting Insecticide Treated Bed Nets (LLIN) were distributed to households covering about 91.2 per cent during the National LLIN mass distribution campaign.

The District Health Management Team (DHMT) discovered during the exercise that some inhabitants used the nets to fence farms and as window and door traps and cautioned against the practice as it was a waste of the tax payer’s money.

She applauded Nenyi George Andah, the Member of Parliament for the Area, for inviting health personnel from St. Paul Mission, Egypt, to undertake free medical screening of some communities in the District.

The Directorate, Dr Lawford Antwi said, despite its numerous achievements, faced some challenges, which included indebtedness of the National Health Insurance Scheme to health facilities, inadequate funds to support health activities, non-availability of permanent DHMT office for administrative work, and some functional CHPS Compounds operating in temporal structures.

She appealed to the Awutu-Senya District Assembly to sponsor some of the nurses for Midwifery training, furnish the newly constructed CHPS compounds, and connect pipe-borne water to Bontrase, Papaase and other health facilities, which had no access to potable water.