Takoradi, July 23, GNA - Health personnel in the Western Region have attributed poor health care to poor facilities in the health institutions and the deplorable road network.

The health personnel, made up of doctors, nurses, and paramedics, expressed the concern at a stakeholders meeting held in Takoradi, to climax a two day visit to some health institutions in the region by Mr Roger Mettle-Nunoo, Deputy Minister of Health.

The health personnel debunked the assertion by Mr Mettle-Nunoo that it was rather poverty that was the contributory factor impeding people, especially those in grassroots, from assessing quality health care.

They cited instances where patients and pregnant mothers died untimely due to the lack of facilities, adding that the deplorable roads to transport patients to the hospitals were also contributory factors.

To arrest the situation, the health personnel appealed to the government to as a matter of urgency repair all the bad roads to facilitate the transportation of patients to the hospitals before the inevitable occurred.

Dr (Mrs) Linda Vanotoo, Western Regional Director of Health Service,

said still births and maternal deaths continue to be on the increase, and so the region has intensified the PROMISE system by moving to houses to educate mothers on taking precautionary measures.

She enumerated a number of challenges impeding smooth health delivery and appealed to the Ministry of the Health to address the situation, citing issues of inadequate medical doctors, accounting staff, pharmacy technicians, uncompleted projects, as some of the problems confronting all the institutions in the region.

Mr Mettle-Nunoo said while the government was doing its best sourcing for funds to address the situation, he appealed to the heads of the health institutions to work at solving the minor problems.

The Deputy Health Minister called on the communities to support the health personnel in their areas to introduce community education on health, dubbed "CHIP" system, which is health preventive measures which would help them observe personal and sanitation measures to prevent the spread of communicable diseases.

Mr Francis Asante-Mensah, Regional Director of the National Health Insurance Authority announced that an amount of GHc22,899,130.07 have been paid to the various health institutions in the region for the settlement of bills.