Cape Coast, Feb. 14, GNA- Dr. Aaron Offei, Central Regional Director of Health Services, on Wednesday expressed regret that the region recorded 85 maternal deaths last year, even though such cases were reduced to the barest minimum, in the last four years.

He also noted that the steady decline in maternal deaths in the region suffered a hitch last year when it moved from 1.04 per 1, 000 per live births since 2002 to 1.6 per 1,000 live births last year. Dr Offei who was giving a review of the performance of the regional health directorate at the opening of its three-day annual review conference, in Cape Coast, therefore, appealed to health personnel to ensure that that situation was improved this year.

The event was on the theme: "Improving Quality of Health Services towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals." Dr Offei said "There are clear lessons to be learnt from this that we don't have to lose our guard and that we have to persist to rescue our dear women in our dear region."

He said the health Directorate had to work hard to justify the support it received from its partners in the areas of training and equipment supply.

Dr Offei said malaria continued to be the number one disease reported at the out patient department and for admissions while the region recorded 1,692 cholera cases throughout all the 13 districts with 55 deaths.

On HIV/AIDS, the Regional Director said, 558 new cases of the disease were recorded at a sero-surveillance prevalence rate of 2.9 as against the national figure of 2.7.

Dr Offei said the Regional Hospital opened the first ante-retroviral treatment centre in the region while voluntary counselling and testing and prevention of mother to child transmission of the disease became operational at all hospitals and some selected health centres.

He said plans to open four more ante-retroviral centres in the region this year, were also underway.

Concerning the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Dr Offei observed that only 34 percent of the region had been covered of which only 37 percent was able to assess health care.

Dr Offei, therefore, urged health workers to educate and encourage the people to join the NHIS.

He said financial inflow to the directorate reduced by 75 percent during the year under review but internally generated funds improved by 35 percent due to mechanisms put in place to check fraud. In a speech read for him, the Central Regional Minister, Nana Ato Arthur expressed worry that after three years of its introduction, the Scheme had not improved much in the region.

He also observed that stakeholders were worried by the relatively high charges and prescriptions outside the National Health Insurance Drug list.

Nana Arthur, therefore, urged the Review Conference to discuss such issues and come out with lasting solutions.

He said the Regional Coordinating Council was collaborating with the Regional Health Directorate to institute an award scheme for health workers to motivate them to give of their best.

Nana Arthur advised health workers to desist from strike actions as a means to press home their demands for better conditions of service but to exercise restraints while lasting solutions were being found to their problems.