(Credit Paul Antwi Mensah, S/No300) Manso-Nkwanta (Ash), Feb 5, GNA - The Member of Parliament (MP) for Amansie-West, Mrs Grace Addo, has presented items valued at about GH¢20= ,000 in support of five health facilities in the area. These included two generators, mower, air-conditioners, laptop computer and a polytank.

The beneficiaries were Agroyesum Hospital, Mpremiase, Aduposo Manso-Adubia and Manso-Abore health centres. Presenting the items during the district's annual health performance meeting at Manso-Nkwanta, Mrs Addo said these were in response to a reque= st by the facilities.

She praised the health personnel for hard work, dedication and professionalism and said they should keep this up. Mr Joseph Adomako, the District Director of Health Service, told the meeting that the district recorded 36 cases of still births last year as against the previous year's figure of 32.

The lack of midwives at the various facilities, failure of some pregn= ant mothers to attend ante-natal clinic and the poor road network were to bla= me for this. He appealed to the Government to speed up efforts at putting roa= ds in the area into good shape. Mr Adomako complained about the surge in teenage pregnancy, which he sai= d resulted in 236 cases of abortion. They saw 36,097 cases of malaria, a 64.8 percentage rise over the 2008 figure of 29,244. He mentioned the lack of office and residential accommodation and inadequate funding as their main constraints.

The Administrator of the Agroyesum Hospital, Mr John Adusei, appealed to the government to provide them with an ambulance. Mr Charles Oti-Prempeh, the District Chief Executive, said the assembly would support the health personnel to improve health care delivery.