Mobile Tech project improves health care delivery in Upper East
The Upper East Regional Director of Health Services, Dr Koku Awoonor-Williams, has said the Mobile Technology for Community Health (MoTeCH) has improved health care delivery after its inception in some districts in the region.
He said though evaluation of the programme was still going on, data in the Kassena-Nankana District showed that MoTeCH had brought improvement in health care delivery.
There were improvements in deliveries from 45 percent to 52 percent and postnatal registrants from 26.9 percent to 63 percent.
Dr Awoonor-Williams said this at the End-Of-Project of the MoTeCH at a community durbar and the inauguration of a Community Health Planning and Services (CHPS) facility at a cost of GH¢35,000.00 to accommodate nurses at Busongo in the Kassena-Nankana District.
He mentioned poor network coverage, limited access to mobile phones and inadequate awareness on the initiative as major challenges they encountered.
Dr Awoonor-Williams thanked Columbia University for providing equipment worth $200,000 to the CHPS facilities and providing $10,000 through MoTeCH for the completion of the Busongo CHPS nurses’ accommodation.
The Upper East Regional Minister, Mr Mark Woyongo, said the MoTeCH project was a cutting edge for information technology in utilizing mobile phones to improve health.
He said the adoption of the technology presented new opportunities for communication and access to information and that the project strives to improve outreach services and reduce the burden of documentation of health care services.
Mr. Woyongo said MoTeCH was the first project in the region to harness the potential of mobile phones for improving the health of communities by targeting pregnancy, delivery and ultimately reducing maternal and child mortality in the region.
Mr Thomas Addah Dalu, the District Chief Executive for Kassena-Nankana West, said the MoTeCH project was undertaken in partnership with the Columbia University, the Grameen Foundation and the Ghana Health Service as a pilot project and started in July 2010.
It has drawn communities closer to health staff and uncompromising relatives who hitherto would have opposed health issues have the opportunity to listen to these messages.
He said the assembly had provided financial support to 10 community health nurse trainees and two medical students at the University of Development Studies and the University of Cape Coast in 2011.
Ms Allison Stone, MoTeCH Project Manager for Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, commended the GHS, RHD and the Navorongo Health Research Centre for partnering with them in the pilot phase of the project.
Source: GNA