The Tema Metropolitan Health Directorate (TMHD) has charged all health practitioners in the Metropolis to refer all dog bite cases to the veterinary office for advice.

Dr John Yabani, Tema Metropolitan Health Director, who gave the charge on Tuesday during the 2016 health review of the Directorate, said the advice of the Metropolitan Veterinary Officer must be sought to check the rabbies status of the patient.

Dr Yabani said it was important for an advice to be sought in order not to give the wrong medication to patients and complicate issues.

He expressed worry over the increasing cases of dog bites in the Metropolis and therefore advised residents to vaccinate their dogs and cats against rabies.

The Director also appealed to the Tema Metropolitan Assembly to fully enforce the Metropolis' bylaws on pet keeping as as most of the dog bites cases were from the strayed.

Touching on other issues, he said, it was worrying that the Metropolis recorded 49 maternal related deaths during 2016 due to factors including late referrals, late reporting to facilities, and poor attitudes of staff among others.

He announced that a maternal and new born health stakeholders' meeting would therefore be held to find a better solution to the high maternal rate in the Metropolis.

He also mentioned that his outfit observed a decline in almost all of its coverages especially for outreach programmes and immunization due mostly to lack of vehicles.

Dr Yabani indicated that apart from urgent need of more vehicles from the Ministry of Health, Ghana Health Service and other institutions, all heads of public health facilities and sub-metro heads had been charged to strategize to cover their targets especially during expanded programmes on immunization.

Private health facilities in the Metropolis were also expected to receive some staff from the Directorate to support them in data collection, collating and report writing.

According to him, every public health worker was to take an annual health screen to ensure that they were healthy to render service to clients.