Denkyembour District Assembly Holds First District Health Committee Meeting for 2022
Posted by Elvis Offei-Bekoe - 6th April, 2022
On Wednesday 6th April 2022, the District Health Committee of Denkyembour District Assembly held its first meeting for 2022. The committee is mandated to oversee all health related issues that would occur in the district and also advice the District Assembly on health issues.
The chairman for the committee; Mr Daniel Appiagyei welcomed all members to the meeting and expressed his utmost gratitude to all members for attending the meeting on such a short notice. He then took the committee through the core functions of the committee and urged all members to take note of the functions.
The secretary of the committee also took the house through the previous minutes after which there were further discussions, deliberations, corrections and adoption of the previous minutes as a working documents for the committee.
There was a presentation by the District Director for Health on the 2021 Health Performance of the district. He mentioned that the district was divided into 7 sub-districts for health related issues. Also there were 2 hospitals, 4 health centres and 18 CHPS centres in the district. His presentation highlighted on trends of OPD attendance within the district and their causes, epidemic prone diseases suspected in the district, update on COVID-19 cases and uptake vaccines, data on distribution of long lasting insecticide treated bed nets conducted for the year, report on deworming exercise for basic schools, trends of stillbirths and neo-natal deaths, family planning services rendered within the year, teenage pregnancy and other major activities conducted by the district health directorate.
The presentation also outlined major challenges that are faced by the district health directorate in carrying out their routine activities. Some of the challenges were inadequate motorbikes in the district to support surveillance activities, low TB case detection as a result of COVID-19, data inconsistency problem, no funds to carry out activities amongst others.
He also made a presentation on the performance of the health directorate for the first quarter of 2022. Within the first quarter, there was an assessment of the health directorate which the Denkyembour District Health Directorate placed 5th out of 33 districts in the Eastern Region. The directorate also undertook the Integrated Monitoring and Supportive Supervision program which was aimed at visiting all health facilities within the district. The district also observed the World Tuberculosis Day on 24th March 2022. He also mentioned that as at the end of the first quarter, the district had no active COVID-19 case. He lastly mentioned that about 41,058 persons have been vaccinated for COVID-19 as at 31st March 2022.
The committee also drafted a work plan for the year and also discussed channels through which petitions relating to health issues should be directed.
The chairman for the committee in his closing remarks thanked all members for their contributions and suggestions and most importantly staying through a lengthy meeting. He also mentioned that further discussions and deliberations would be done on the platform.