Hon. Stephen Yakubu, the Upper East Regional Minister, says the Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) will continue to collaborate with the Ghana Health Service (GHS) in the Region to ensure accessibility of quality health service to all residents.
“I wish to assure all and sundry that the Regional Coordinating Council in collaboration with the Regional Health Committee will monitor health facilities to ensure that health staff are not only punctual, but also adhere to the tenets and ethics of their profession,” he said.
Hon. Yakubu said this when he joined staff of the GHS from across the Region at the 2021 half year performance review meeting held on the theme; “The Role of Quality Data Improvement Service Delivery Outcome.”
He said the RCC and the GHS were determined to reverse all the negative health indicators, especially maternal mortality, low doctor-patient ratio, high teenage pregnancy among others to positive indicators.
The Minister, also a former Ambassador, described the theme of the meeting as timely and appropriate, as it aimed to address the several data challenges that faced the GHS.
Hon. Yakubu noted that quality data gathering was a challenge not only to the GHS, but to all institutions in the Region, and called for the need for institutions to collaborate and share data among themselves to improve on the basic health needs of residents.
He appealed to members of the Regional Planning Coordinating Unit (RPCU) to make data available so that the Integrated Medium Term Regional Plan would be realistic and stand the test of time.
The Regional Director of the GHS, Dr Emmanuel Kofi Dzotsi, gave the assurance that the Regional Health Team would continue to strive to reach quality health service delivery targets by the end of 2022.
He said even though the Directorate aimed at zero maternal death, they still recorded maternal deaths, adding that there was marginal improvement in maternal mortality from 24 to 15 in the period under review, which resulted in institutional maternal mortality rate of 114.1/100,000 live births.