Health Facilities

The Dormaa East District has no District Hospital; it thus relies on the only two Public Health Centres; Wamfie health centre and Dormaa Akwamu health centres alongside one Mission Health Centre at Kyeremasu. However, complicated health cases are sent to the Berekum Municipal Hospital and Dormaa Presbyterian Hospital which serve as referral centres for Dormaa East District. Also the proximity of the District to Sunyani, the Regional Capital enables access to Regional Hospital Services.

Apart from these, there are clinics at Akontanim, Kyeremasu, Wamanafo and Wamfie. In addition, there are Community Based Health Planning Services (CHPS Compound) at Kofibourkrom, Private Maternity Home (Rachel’s Maternity Home) and Community Clinic (Bishop Mathew Gyamfi’s Clinic) both at Wamanafo and thirty (30) health outreach points that are fairly distributed throughout the district. Thus minimal health care needs of the people are assured. That notwithstanding, there is urgent need to upgrade the health centre at Wamfie into a district Hospital to ensure optimum health care in the District. The table below shows the Health Facilities in Dormaa East District.

Number of Health Facilities in the District
Staffing Situation

It is regrettable to note that these health facilities do not have adequate staff to ensure efficient service delivery. This is further worsened by the Nurse-Patient ratio that is 1:5824 against the standard of 1:10. The condition is to the highest degree hindering effective health care delivery in the district with its apparent consequence on productivity in the district. The Category and Number of Staff in the District Health Facilities are depicted in the table below.

Accessibility to Healthcare Service

The survey revealed that 63.6% of people accessed healthcare in the community and 36.4% outside the community. The statistics indicate that health facilities are fairly accessible to most households in the communities. This affirms that the bulk of the population are within the urban where most of these facilities are located since the sampled size gave due consideration to population of settlements.

Distance to Healthcare

Distance to healthcare is a major concern regarding the effective delivery of healthcare to the people. The mere existence of a healthcare facility would not serve its purpose unless they are closer to the people. The survey conducted revealed that 71.6% travel below 1km to access healthcare, 14.6% between 1km- 5km and 13.8% above 5km. This means people travel outside their communities to access healthcare services cover a distance of either 1km-5km or above 5km. and those who access healthcare within the community cover a distance not greater than 1km. Consequently, there should be conscious efforts to ensure equitable distribution of health facilities to the rural areas to ensure optimum accessibility.

Frequent Household Ailment

The survey revealed that 73.4% of households frequently suffer from malaria, 13.7% cholera, 11.2% rheumatism, 0.3 urinary tract infections, 0.6% bilharzia and other diseases like skin infection, hypertension, intestinal worms among others accounted for the remaining 0.9%. This is clearly confirmed by the statistics from the District Health Directorate of which malaria is first in the top ten diseases for the year 2009. The table below gives the detail of the top ten diseases.

Measures to Prevent Infant and Maternal Mortality

• Upgrade of the Wamfie Health Centre to Hospital status
• Ambulance to refer patients
• Access to health services (opening of CHPS)

National Health Insurance Scheme

The ‘Cash and Carry System’ of paying for health care at the point of service was a key financial barrier to health care access for the poor. To remove the financial barrier to health services, the then government initiated the National Health Insurance Scheme in 2001 aimed at abolishing this system and limiting out of pocket cash payment at the point of service delivery. The scheme makes provision for the poorest and most vulnerable people identified and exempted from making financial contributions to the system.

The survey revealed that 81.6% have embraced the scheme and have registered and only 18.4% are left out in the doldrums due to their financial incapability and doubts about the sustainability of the scheme. This implies that aim of making healthcare accessible to all would be realised sooner than later as majority have embraced the scheme.

Family Planning

Population growth has strong linkages with economic growth and sustainable social development. Population growth increases the quantity of labour without necessarily improving its quality. For that matter the population must be managed to match with development through family planning.

The survey revealed that family planning awareness level is high as 88.8% are aware of the programme. But in terms of practice, 7.2% use condom, 10.2% natural method, 0.6% IUD, 6.5% oral pills and 11.3% injectable. The remaining 64.2 do not practice family planning at all. This is very worrisome as it would propel population explosion and the resultant vices if the necessary steps are not taken to avert the situation.

Problems of the Health Directorate

• Inadequate number of professional staff
• Staff accommodation
• Inadequate working space at Wamfie Health Centre
• Lack of health facilities in the peripheral part of the District
• No internet services
• No telephone connections

Priorities of the Health Directorate

• Opening of CHPS compounds at Preprashed, Praprabebida, Ningokrom and Asikasu/Ndwadwam
• Construction of Senior Staff Accommodation and renovation of existing old and abandoned ones.
• Construction of laboratory or research building
• Sponsorship of midwives (3), laboratory assistance (1), medical assistance and a senior nurse.
  
  

HIV AND AIDS

Prevalence Rate of HIV refers to the number of people with HIV at a point in time, often expressed as a percentage of the total population. GPRS II recognizes the serious threat posed by HIV/AIDS to the Socio – Economic development of the Country. It also has potential impact on Human Capital Development, Productivity, and Social Service delivery. The prevalence rate of HIV in the District is 1.7%.

Prevention is a key strategy for curbing the HIV/AIDS epidemic preventing new HIV infection, particularly among the youth is critical for managing the menace. The table below shows the HIV record by age group in 2008 and 2009 in the District.

HIV and AIDS Awareness and Stigmatization

The survey indicated a high HIV and AIDS awareness level of 90.5% implying the awareness creation has gone down well with the people. However, the stigmatization is still high as 37.8% of households heads denounce the fact that they would associate in the form of eating, drinking or mingling with AIDS infected person.