Upper West Region fails to meet doctor-patient ratio for 2020

The Upper West Regional Health Sector Performance Review Report for 2020 has revealed that the Region had failed to meet the doctor-patient ratio target of 1:7,500 set for the year.

According to the Report, the year under review ended with the doctor to population ratio of 1: 13,159, an improvement on the ratio for 2019, which was 1:13,888.

Dr Moses Barima Djimatey, the Deputy Director of Public Health, North-East Region, disclosed this when he presented the Report in Wa at the opening of the Upper West Regional Annual Health Sector Performance Review Conference.

It was peer-reviewed by the North-East Regional Health Directorate.

The conference, which was attended by stakeholders in the health sector, including representatives from the national, regional and district levels and the private sector, was on the theme: “The Effect of COVID-19 Pandemic on Health Service Delivery in the Upper West Region”.

The review was anchored on four thematic objectives: Universal Health Coverage (UHC), which had 3.5 out of Five points; and Reduce morbidity and mortality, intensify prevention and control of non-communicable disease, 3.8 points.

The rest were: Enhance efficiency in governance and management, 3.6 points, and Intensify prevention and control of communicable disease and ensure the reduction of new HIV/AIDS and other STIs, especially among the vulnerable groups, 2.8 out of Five points.

Cumulatively, the Region scored a total of 3.5 points out of a maximum of five points based on the Holistic Assessment Tool.

Other areas the report covered included proportion of functional Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) zone, which stood at 74 per cent as against 80 per cent target for the year.

The best performing areas in the region were the Sissala East Municipality and Sissala West District, with 4.3 out of Five points, followed by Jirapa Municipality with 4.2 points.

The rest were Wa West District and Lawra Municipality with 4.0 points each, Nadowli-Kaleo and Lambussie Districts 3.9 points each, Wa Municipal, 3.7 points; Nandom Municipal 3.6 points; Daffiama-Bussie-Issa District, 3.3 and Wa East District 3.2 points.

Mr Eric Boateng Frimpong, the Director of Internal Audit at the Ghana Health Service, who represented the Director General of the GHS, noted that the GHS felt the impact of COVID-19 in its service delivery.

“It is worrying to note that in the midst of COVID-19, we are also battling with stagnating situation in some of our healthcare efforts. Anaemia in women and children continues to remain a huge challenge,” Dr Frimpong stated.

He said the slow pace in reducing the neonatal mortality rate had posed a serious challenge to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs) target.

The Upper West Regional Minister-designate, Dr Hafiz Bin Salih, who presented the keynote address, urged the people to take the COVID-19 safety precautions seriously.

He entreated the people to protect themselves by drinking a lot of water and sleeping in well-ventilated places to avoid contracting Cerebrospinal Meningitis, as the region was in the season of the disease.