Atiwa District takes delivery of ambulance

The Atiwa District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr. Attah Twum announced on Thursday that the District Assembly has taken delivery of an ambulance.

The DCE who made the disclosure at Anyinam in a speech read on his behalf during the 2012 Annual Performance Review Meeting of the District Health Directorate, said the ambulance would facilitate the transportation of the sick to health centres.

The meeting brought together representatives from the Regional Health Directorate, health workers from the entire sub-district, Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs), opinion leaders, assembly members and traditional rulers.

The DCE commended health workers in the district for their sacrifices and urged them to continue their selfless dedication to duty to ensure quality health care delivery to the people in the various communities.

He disclosed that the Member of Parliament (MP) for Atiwa West, Mr Kwesi Amoako Attah, was constructing a maternity block at Kwabeng hospital to ease the burden on expectant mothers.

The District Director of Health Services Mr Tei Djangmah, stated that the incidence of malaria had reduced in the district, saying that for the first time it had lost its position as the top disease in the district.

He said in 2011, malaria cases in the district were 43,031, compared to 4,260 in 2012, and that his outfit would continue to work hard to further reduce the incidence of malaria.

Mr Djangmah said there was no community or institutional maternal death in the district at present, as compared to three deaths in 2011.

He attributed the decline in malaria cases to the hanging and use of Insecticide Treated Nets (ITNS), collaborative education by the health sector volunteers, environmental health personnel, as well as accurate diagnostic systems due to the introduction of the Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDTS), proper treatment procedures carried out by subscribers and the introduction of home-based care.

Mr Djangmah attributed the case of zero maternal death in the district to the improvement in ante-natal care attendance and services rendered by health personnel, functioning system of community ambulance services and early referral by community health nurses to hospitals among other factors.

He said in 2013, the focus would be to build the capacity of staff and strengthen the sub-district health system.

Other targets were to improve supportive supervision, intensify measures to control HIV and AIDS, promote prevention of mother-to-child transmission, and improve the tuberculosis detection rate.