Dr. Joseph Teye Nuertey, Volta Regional Director of Health Services, has cautioned non-performing districts in the region to ‘wake up’ or face sanctions.

“I am not happy about the level of monitoring and supervision in the sub-districts…I will not hesitate to recommend sanctions if we detect that a Municipal/District Director is not performing as expected,” he warned.

Dr. Nuertey gave the caution at a mid-year review of the Service in Ho.

He observed that supervision and monitoring were great challenges at all levels of health delivery in the region to the extent that, “simple immunization practices were not adhered to by staff at the lower levels.”

Dr. Nuertey said the situation was so bad that clinical practice in some health centres and hospitals were unsatisfactory.

He therefore charged municipal and district directors to intensify supervision and monitoring and submit their reports to his office.

Dr. Nuertey said though the region was not doing badly, he was hopeful that with good supervision and monitoring, it would achieve its targets of reducing maternal death, early teenage pregnancy and improve general health care delivery.

He identified “huge deficits” in midwives, registered general nursing and physician assistant categories of health workers as major challenges to service delivery but was optimistic that the establishment of a Post Basic Midwifery Training School at Kete Krachi would help reduce maternal and child mortality in the region.

Dr. Nuertey was also hopeful that the University of Health and Allied Sciences in Ho, with a campus in Hohoe, would enhance health care delivery in the region. He commended some districts for initiating projects through their internally generated funds, motivation of staff and quality delivery of health services of acceptable standards.