Upper West citizens petitions Minister to investigate out-going Health Director

A group described as the Coalition of Concerned Citizens of the Upper West Region have petitioned the Regional Minister, Dr Hafiz Bin Salih, to investigate a number of allegations levelled against the Regional Health Director, Dr Osei Afreh Kuffuor.

Dr Kuffuor who was posted to the region as the Regional Health Director in October 2018, has attracted lots of criticisms regarding his style of management of the COVID-19 pandemic and the outbreak of the Cerebral Spinal Meningitis (CSM) which has claimed 40 lives so far in the region.

Mr Issahaque Suleman, a Co-Convener of the Coalition of Concerned Citizens of Upper West in the company of other group members presented the petition to the Minister at his office on Friday.

Mr Suleman said the group which was concerned about the manner in which their people were dying out of the CSM, commenced its own investigation into the matter and have established a number of issues.

He said some of the issues they found include lack of pre-public education on the disease and other administrative issues bordering on distribution of equipment and medicines to health facilities, financial malfeasance among others.

Mr Suleman said these were serious issues that could not just be swept under the carpet, hence the decision of the group to petition the Minister to cause an investigation into the matter and address them appropriately.

Dr Bin Salih after receiving the petition disclosed that Dr Kuffuor had been reassigned to the headquarters of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) in Accra.

The Regional Minister also pointed out that the 40 CSM deaths recorded in the region were as a result of late reportage of the victims to health facilities.

He stressed that the region with the help of Ghana Health Service (GHS), the World Health Organisation (WHO), government and other philanthropist have enough medicine to treat all CSM cases now and in the near future.

Dr Bin Salih, however, commended the group for using the appropriate channel to address their grievances, saying a society, which resort to appropriate channels of addressing grievances would have the potential to grow since development thrived in an atmosphere of peace and tranquillity.