By Peter Agengre
Thirty-two health facilities serving eighty-four communities with a population of Fifty-four thousand, coupled with the lack of medicines and other medical supplies is certainly a recipe for disaster in healthcare delivery.
This is the story as told by Peter Agengre when the Nabdam District Directorate engaged the media during its 2023 Annual Performance Review Meeting in the Upper East Region.
The situation is beyond dire as most often patients are asked by health professionals to go and buy medicines outside the health facilities for their treatment. This has indeed impeded the achievement of the Universal Health Coverage. This was what prompted the Nabdam District Director for Health Services Mariama Mahama to appeal to NGOs for help.
“Most of our facilities, we don’t have adequate medicines for health delivery. We have high indebtedness to our regional medical stores. As a result of that we are unable to get more medicines but we are working hard to improve on this so that we can get sustained medical supplies to our health facilities.”
Daily, patients are seen with prescription forms rushing to the markets to buy medicines for their family members who are on admission. Such practice at health facilities in the Nabdam District has become dangerously rampant and a worry to Mariama Mahama. She is praying for some support as soon as possible.
“So we provide clinical services and all the necessary services needed whenever they visit. In some instances, we have to write for them to go and buy the necessary medicine that they need, but this is an issue we have taken at heart,” She elaborated.
In the year under review, the Nabdam District Health Directorate witnessed an increase in antenatal care including intermittent preventive treatment for malaria prevention, a reduction in teenage pregnancy from 20 percent in 2022 to 16.4 percent in 2023, and an increase in childhood immunization coverages among others. The 2023 annual performance review was on the theme; Achieving Universal Health Coverage through Health System Strengthening.
