Hypertension, diabetes increasing in Northern Region – Health Director
Hypertension and diabetes have been identified as among the leading cause of out-patient department (OPD) attendance in the Northern Region, Dr Akwesi Twumasi Northern Regional Director of Health Services, has said.
Hypertension cases in the region rose from 1,500 in 2010 to 3,000 in 2012 while diabetes cases also went up from 2,000 to 3,000 cases in the same years.
Dr Twumasi said this at a day’s forum organised by the Northern Regional Co-Ordinating Council (NRCC) for Municipal, Metropolitan and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) and Heads of Departments and Agencies in the region to evaluate their performance and find solutions to challenges.
The Director termed the two diseases as lifestyle, which could be avoided through regular exercise as well as low intake of sugar.
Dr Twumasi said under five child mortality due to malaria had reduced from four per cent in 2010 to one per cent in 2013 and attributed the reduction to the mosquito bed net distribution in the region.
The region, he said, did not record an outbreak of Cerebro Spinal Meningitis (CSM) cases in the ‘heat period’ due to a massive vaccination campaign, which was undertaken in the region.
Mr Bede Ziedeng, the Northern Regional Minister, said the NRCC would soon institute a ‘league table’ on performance of MMDA to show the status of implementation of projects, programmes and activities in each district and place them in order of merit.
Mr Ziedeng said this would serve as a motivation to hardworking Assemblies and reminded non-performing ones to be up and doing if not they should not blame anyone if they are sanctioned.
He appealed to the Assemblies to pay attention to internally generated funds through the effective and efficient collection of property rates and parking lots to boost their revenue.
“Try as much as possible to raise funds from within your jurisdiction to execute your projects and stop relaying solely on external funds like the Common Fund”, he said.
Mr Ziedeng said there was the need to settle chieftaincy disputes in the region and appealed to traditional leaders to embrace the Land Administration Projects (LAP), which seeks to streamline land issues as a stop gap measure to ending the many disputes caused by land ownership.
“LAP is a pragmatic project, which can help solve our land issues. Our problem is that our lands lack clear boundaries”, he added.
Mr Paul Abanga, the Regional Director of the Ghana Education Service, said 18 out of the 26 districts had reached the gender average parity index, which indicated that more girls were now enrolled in schools just like the boy child.
He said adequate measures had been instituted to ensure effective monitoring and involvement of the School Management Committees in school administration.
Source: GNA