Mamponteng (Ash), Feb. 5, GNA - Dr Kwasi Yeboah-Awudzi, Kwabre District Director of Health Services, has called on the government to expand and equip health facilities in the district. He also called on the government to assist the district assembly to sponsor more nurses to training schools to enable them contribute effectively to health delivery.

Dr Yeboah-Awudzi was speaking at a day's Health Management Information System (HMIS) 2004 performance meeting at Mamponteng on Friday.

The meeting was to take stock of the performance of the various hospitals, clinics and health centres in the district and to map out effective strategies to improve on their performances in 2005. He said the Ghana Health Service (GHS) was prepared to collaborate with all stakeholders in health delivery system and community heads to render quality health delivery to the people.

The District Director called on chiefs and other opinion leaders to assist the Ministry of Health and the GHS to legally acquire hospital lands that have not been properly acquired to eliminate encroachers. Dr Yeboah-Awudzi stressed the need for the workers to intensify their education on health-related issues and diseases so that certain ailments like yaws and hypertension, which are on the increase in the district, could be checked.

He called on traditional leaders to put in place measures to compel community members to register for Mutual Health Insurance Scheme, saying, this will go a long way to reduce mortality due to complications of delayed reporting.

Nana Kwakye Danka Gyeabour, Nkosuohene of Asonomaso, called for regular clinical conferences for workers to evaluate their performances. He suggested that the district assembly should recruit accounts clerks at the various health centres in the district to work on financial aspects of the hospitals so that health workers instead of sitting down to compute their accounts will get enough time to attend to patients.

Dr Kwame Detoh, Medical Superintendent in-charge of Ankaase Methodist Faith Healing Hospital, said the referral hospital recorded 162 positive cases out of the 332 suspected HIV/AIDS cases. He said for tuberculosis (TB), 23 were positive out of 129, adding that the hospital recorded one maternal death and three stillbirths and seven cases of Buruli ulcer.