Koforidua, Feb. 27, GNA - The Presiding Member of the New Juaben Municipal Assembly, Odeefuo Boadi Asiedu, has appealed the government to allocate substantial amounts of money from the expected oil revenue to the health sector.

He said this had become necessary because the health sector was saddled with many problems that the current resources allocated to it could not solve.

Odeefuo Asiedu was speaking at the annual performance review meeting of the Eastern Regional sector of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) in Koforidua on Tuesday. He said almost all the resources allocated to the New Juaben Municipal Assembly were not sufficient to solve the sanitation problem of the municipality. The Eastern Regional Director of Health Services, Dr Ebenezer Appiah-Denkyirah, said the region had seen a sudden surge in hypertension and diabetes and that 107,701 new cases of hypertension were recorded last year as against 54,582 the previous year. The region recorded 54,582 diabetes cases in 2007 as against 23,567 the previous year. Still births slightly reduced from 1,287 in 2006 to 1,247 last year while the overall under five childhood deaths improved from 560 to 486 last year.

He said most of the childhood deaths occurred during deliveries or during early childhood especially within a month of delivery and records showed that 70 per cent of all fewer than five years deaths in the region occurred within one month of delivery.

Dr Appiah Denkyirah said the Regional Health Administration had decided that this year all pregnant women should be visited at home and the family counselled on pregnancy and the plans for safe delivery, to encourage pregnant women to eat well and sleep under treated mosquito nets.

Families of pregnant women would also be educated to be conversant with dangers associated with pregnancy and all babies born either in the health facility or at home shall be visited at home within 10 days of delivery to counsel the mother and the family. Dr Appiah-Denkyirah said all Community Health Nurses and Sub-district midwives would be required to conduct at least 30 home visits every month without fail, assisted by registered community agents.