Health Minister Tours Upper East and Northern Regions
The Minister for Health (MoH), Hon. Kwaku Agyeman-Manu began a three-day working visit to the Upper East and Northern Regions.
As part of the tour, he will visit regional and district health facilities in the Upper East Region, to afford him the opportunity to interact with staff and gain first-hand information on the health sector in the regions for policy direction.
Hon. Agyeman-Manu’s first port of call was on the Upper East Regional Minister, Hon. Madam Paulina Patience Abayage. Welcoming the Minister, Hon. Abayage expressed her appreciation for his continuous efforts to improve health care delivery in the country.
The Regional Minister enumerated some challenges confronting health care delivery in the Region, which included lack of access to health facilities, non-availability health facilities in some deprived areas, lack of essential health care equipment, and inadequate human resource.
Hon. Abayage reiterated an appeal by the Chief of Funbisi in the Builsa South District, to the Ministry to construct a district hospital to increase health care accessibility. She also appealed to the Minister to ensure that more health professionals are posted to the Region to facilitate health care delivery.
Hon. Agyeman-Manu said he had received reports on the situations in some health facilities in the Upper East Region. However, it was important for him to have first-hand information. Therefore, his mission was to observe, learn, motivate staff of the various facilities, and take “something back”, which will inform him about the policy direction of the Ministry.
Hon. Agyeman-Manu later met heads of agencies of the Ministry of Health at the Regional Health Directorate of the Ghana Health Service. He urged the staff to continue to dedicate themselves to their profession. He also advised young health professionals to take up postings in the northern parts of the country.
The Honourable Minister and his delegation then visited and interacted with the staff of the various agencies under the Ministry. These include the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), National Ambulance Service (NAS), Ghana Health Service (GHS), and the Bolgatanga Regional Hospital. The delegation was accompanied by the Regional Director of Health, Dr Winfred Ofosu, and some directors of the Ghana Health Service.