Takoradi, Feb. 22, GNA - The 2009 Annual Performance Review Meeting of the Western Regional Director of Health is underway in Takoradi on the theme: "Linking Clinical Care and Public Health for Effective Service Delivery." In a welcome address, Dr Linda Vanotoo, Regional Director of Health Services, said the National Health Insurance Scheme, which has removed financial barriers for clients, was creating difficulties for service providers because of the long delay in re-imbursement for services rendered. She said the health facilities owe the Regional Medical Stores huge sums of money and expressed the hope that the arrears would be paid as soon as possible to ensure the smooth running of medical services. Dr Vanatoo said in-depth supervision and onsite training were conducted in all the 17 districts of the region to improve data management on the Expand Programme on Immunisation last year.

She said one of the major areas of concern for the region was the high maternal deaths, poor death recording and high stillbirths. Dr Vanatoo said the region was able to reverse the situation through the PROMISE Initiative followed by the Maternal and Newborn Conference held in March 2009. She noted that the conference brought out many gaps in maternal and newborn service delivery and also served as a tool for improvement in service delivery in the districts. Dr Vanatoo said some of the challenges the region faced in 2009 included late submission of reports, weak performance in some health facilities, inadequate funding for monitoring and supervision, poor data management and request by a number of the medical staff for study leave. She said some of the personnel were also in school without authorisation.