The North East Regional Health Director, Dr. Ibrahim Baba Abubakar, has disclosed some challenges bedevilling health care delivery in the region.
He revealed this during the annual health performance review meeting in Nalerigu, stating that poor road networks and inadequate staff redistribution have heavily impacted the region’s health sector.
Dr Abubakar explained that the area’s road conditions have significantly affected the referral system, particularly maternal and child health.
He emphasized that improving the infrastructure and transportation system is crucial to addressing this challenge, asserting that the region faces difficulties in staff redistribution, which affects the provision of health services at the grassroots level.
Despite these setbacks, the North East Region has significantly improved maternal and child health, with mortality rates declining below the national average.
The region has also shown exceptional progress in COVID-19 vaccination coverage and childhood immunization.
As a result, Dr Abubakar has highlighted the need for collaboration between the Ghana Health Service, the Ministry of Health, and their partners.
He mentioned that new strategies, such as the Kwaika Chips Plus project and the network of practice, will be implemented to strengthen primary health care at the facility level.
“The other areas that we are not doing well as you can see are our staff, redistribution, the staff strength in the region, and then also our infrastructure in the region. Because once we don’t have the requisite infrastructure, getting the people to the lowest level to render the health service becomes a challenge.
“So it’s an area that we are looking at, improving, going forward, this year. So we also have a serious challenge with our referral system. As you can see, we have some of our mortalities attributable to the, you know, the nature of the rules and then the transport system, removing patients from one, lower level to another.”
“So we’ve taken note of that, and we will also not allow those that we have done well to fall through. We’ll be able to push forward as long as we have support from the headquarters of the Ghana Health Service and for that matter, the Ministry of Health.”
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