Manso-Nkwanta (Ash), April 4, GNA - The Amansie West District Assembly has petitioned the Minister of Health to urgently post a doctor to the Saint Martin's Catholic Hospital at Agroyesum for the treatment of Buruli Ulcer.

The assembly said since the departure of Dr Samuel Nyarko Etuaful, who left for further studies about six months ago, the hospital has been without a medical officer.

Dr Etuaful served the hospital for more than nine years. Expressing their sentiment on the situation at the assembly meeting at Manso-Nkwanta, the members said the hospital was the only one that served over 120,000 people in the district.

Due to the absence of a medical doctor at the hospital, in-patients, majority of whom are Buruli Ulcer patients, were discharged without fully recovering from the affliction, the assembly members noted.

As a means of enticing medical professionals to the hospital, the board of directors have instituted a 150 percent salary increase for any medical officer who offered to work there. The assembly also called on the Minister of Road Transport to upgrade feeder roads in the district to improve upon the road network in the area.

They also appealed to the Minister of Communications to provide the district with telephone network.

The assembly also appealed to the Electoral Commission (EC) to give the district an additional constituency to help speed up its development.

The assembly members noted that the district presently had a population of more than 120,000 and 169 communities. Addressing the assembly, Mr Ben Kwakye-Adeefe, the District Chief Executive, lauded the government for the introduction of the capitation grant and said since its introduction enrolment figures in schools in the district had increased tremendously.

He, however, warned head teachers against misappropriating the grant and said with the introduction of the grant no teacher can send a pupil out of school because of fees.