NO MATERNAL DEATH IN ASSIN SOUTH FOR 2 YEARS (PAGE 22, FEB 13, 2010)

THE Assin South District has not recorded any maternal death for two consecutive years. No infant death was also reported in any of its health facilities.
The District Director of Health Services, Mr Mends Kofi Quaning, made this known at the 2009 annual health performance review meeting at Nyankumasi Ahenkro on Thursday.
Mr Quaning said despite the fact that the district did not have a hospital, the health centres were performing well in their diagnosis.
Mr Quaning said the district had only three functional Community-Based Health Planning Services (CHPS) compounds and had demarcated 11 to be operational by 2015, adding that two of them were targeted to be operational by June, 2010 at Abodweseso and Assin Kumasi.
He said they would require four medical assistants, six midwives, three staff nurses, 13 community health nurses and 20 other allied health professionals to meet the full complement of staff.
Mr Quaning said lack of a district hospital was one of the major challenges facing that district in terms of some diagnosis.
He said out of the 10 cases reported at the facilities, malaria continued to be the leading cause of diseases.
The district reported a total of 32,481 malarial cases, representing 60 per cent of the Outpatient Department diseases in 2009, an increase of 12.3 per cent from 28,925 in 2008.
He said in line with the Millennium Development Goals on maternal and child health, the district recorded an unprecedented coverage in childhood immunisation service of 89.6 per cent against the childhood killer diseases.
Mr Quaning said the district collaborated with some of the junior doctors from the University Medical School for both clinical and community health programmes.
He said with the help of Global Fund and efforts of tuberculosis care providers, treatment continued to record improvement with a success rate of 91 per cent in 2009 from 58 per cent in 2008.
Mr Quaning stated that HIV/AIDS among pregnant women decreased marginally from 15 per cent in 2008 to 13 per cent in 2009.
He appealed to the government to build a hospital for the district to improve health delivery services for the people.
In his welcoming address, the Medical Assistant in charge of the Nyankumasi Sub-District, Mr Isaac Fosu Mumford, urged the staff to use the review to take measures to improve upon their performance.
The District Co-ordinating Director, Mr Thaddeus Zaason, who stood in for the District Chief Executive, Mrs Sabina Appiah-Kubi, said the assembly would ensure that the requisite facilities were put in place to enhance health delivery services in the district until a hospital was built for the district.
He urged the staff to continue to work hard to surmount the challenges facing health delivery services in the area.