The savannah regional health Directorate on Tuesday, 16th August,2022 held it’s 2022 half year performance review meeting at Damongo in the regional capital under the theme: Achieving health objectives using research and Evidence – Based practice”.
In a welcome address, the Regional director of health services, Dr. Chrysantus Kubio explained that, the choice of the theme for the half year performance review is based on the assertion that, research could be used to unravel data- evidence based that points to gaps and innovations for improvement amongst key stakeholders, both internally and externally adding that, the theme is intended to be set aside the rest of the year and beyond to enable them focus more on Research and evidence- based practices aimed at providing opportunities for the region to place more emphasis on data collection and analysis with the view of identifying the root causes of the underperformance or improvement chalked in some of the strategic indicators.
Dr. Chrysantus again explained that, the region in the few months has recorded some significant developments which are already making positive impacts on health delivery activities across the region which includes; the posting of 140 newly recruited personnel out of which 110 reported, trained 16 regional and District staff on health research manuscript writing, Trained 76 community health officers with support from the District Directors and catholic Relief services to help increase CHPS functionality and has received equipment to improve hospital service delivery among others.
On covid-19, the regional health Director noted that, the region has changed significantly from what was recorded last year by achieving 48% fully vaccinated status for covid-19 vaccination as a region and about 59% of the regions population taking at least a single dose.
He also revealed that, TB treatment rate improved from 87% for 2021 to 96% for 2022 first half year with Adolescent pregnancy reducing from 14.3% to 13.4% and institutional neonatal mortality rate reducing from 3.2% to 2.4% per 1,000 live births.
Some major Challenges faced by the region in health delivery as disclosed by the regional health Director, Dr. Chrysantus Kubio includes; inadequate transport for service delivery, high cost of service delivery, especially in hard-to-reach communities in East , Central and North Gonja Districts, responding to multiple public health emergency with limited human and financial resources but however revealed that, they are collaborating with some stakeholders to tackle these problems and limitations to health address the gaps identified in their performance.
He added that, the regional health directorate in the remaining half year will focus on promoting operational research and evidence – based practice for quality improvement ( QI ), ensuring availability of appreciate data capture tools for all indicators, intensifying data validation and entry into DHIMS 2, ensuring equitable distribution of health professionals to achieve better outcomes, intensifying financial resource mobilization and ensuring BMCs adhere to the IGF guidelines for income generation and sound financial management.
Dr. Chrysantus Kubio expressed gratitude to the staff of the regional health directorate for their hardwork and commitment to work, the SRCC, Traditional Authorities, the community – based surveillance volunteers and also to their developmental partners namely ; WHO, UNICEF, JICA, CRS, GLOBAL COMMUNITIES and USAID – IMPACT MALARIA for their continuous support to the regional health directorate both technically and financially during the period under review.
