Oti Regional Health Directorate has held its first annual performance review with steps to improve service delivery at all levels.

The two-day review programme was on the theme: Engaging stakeholders to ensure continuity of service delivery in the midst of COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr Osei Kuffour Afreh, Oti Regional Directorate of Health Service, elaborated his vision for the Region, which is building improved and resilient health services through stakeholder engagement, use of quality data and technology to meet the health needs of the people.

Dr Kuffour mentioned a few achievements for the year under review, which he said, percentage of deliveries attended to by trained health workers increased from 48.6 per cent in 2019 to 52.2 per cent in 2020 as result of posting of additional midwives to places where their services were needed.

He talked of the Institutional maternal mortality ratio, where he said the Institutional maternal mortality ratio was 87 per 100,000 live births in 2020 compared to the national average of 350 per 100,000 live births.

He said some identification factors leading to this trend were home deliveries and inadequate health facilities to attend to pregnant women in labour promptly.

Dr Kuffour said the Region saw a marginal increase from 14.5 per cent in 2019 to 15 per cent in 2020.

He however call on the traditional authorities and all stakeholders to support in bringing down the number of teenagers becoming pregnant in their respective communities.

The Institutional Infant mortality rate increased from 3.2 per 1,000 live births in 2019 to 3.6 per 1,000 live births in the same period of 2020.

There is a stagnation in immunisation coverage of most vaccines for the children with measles and rubella coverage declining slightly from 86.8 per in 2019 to 86.4 per cent in 2020.

He said per capita outpatient attendance in the Region declined from 0.72 to 0.64 which is below the national target of 1.0.

Touching on key challenges facing the newly established Oti Regional Health Directorate includes the absence of a Regional Medical Stores which plays a crucial role in the storage and distribution of critical medical supplies for health service delivery within the Region.

He urged Regional Coordinating Council and the Ghana Health Service Headquarters to expedite action on the establishment of medical stores for Oti Region as well as a Regional Hospital to ease the over-reliance on the Volta Region.

On behalf of the Regional Coordinating Council, Mr Andrews Okumah Nawil assured that ORCC will work assiduously with the Municipal and District Assemblies within the Region to create favourable conditions to attract skilled and other health professionals into the Region.

He said twenty four Regional decentralized department and agencies have been set up in the Oti Region to provide critical services to accelerate development to improve the living standard of the people.

He told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that, government had initiated action for the construction of the Regional and four District Hospitals to be located at Dambai, Chinderi, Kpasa and Kadjebi respectively.

Dr Dennis Laryea, a representative from Ghana Health Service in Accra, said the plan and processes of setting up by strengthening system for addressing staff needs, such as the provision of compensation, benefits package, investing in improving and expanding capacity were on the front burner.

He said the service was focused on improving the organisational culture and corporate image to redefine who they were and what they stand for.