Health Care

Health Care Facilities

The Municipality is served by nine (9) health institutions. Both private and the public sector are involved in the provision of health care in the Municipality. The table below shows the type of facility, location and management of the facility.

TOP TEN OUT PATIENT MORBIDITY (2009 and 2013)

The ten top cases of diseases recorded in the Municipality in the year 2009 and 2013 are shown in the table below.

Most of the diseases are due to poor environment and diet. A lot needs to be done on the poor sanitation eating habits. The inclusion of hypertension in the top ten diseases is worrying. This means that eating habits of the people in the municipality is changing towards the consumption of more of high cholesterol foods than the local fiber foods. The ten main causes of hospital admission in the municipality are also shown in table 32 below.

Again most of the causes of hospital admissions are the environmental condition and diet in nature. This means that a lot need to be done about eating habits and environmental sanitation, to reduce morbidity and its likely effect on human health and productivity.

Health Professionals

The nurse population ratio has improved at the end of the plan period. In 2009, the ratio was one nurse to nine hundred and ninety three (1:993), while in 2013 the ratio was one nurse to nine hundred and fifteen people (1:915) Doctor patient ratio was 1:14,890 in 2009 while in 2013 the ratio was 1:8,964. There are 3 Public Medical Doctors in the municipality. The remaining 6 are private practitioners. All the Medical Doctors are practicing in Offinso. There is the need to improve infrastructure at Abofour Health Centre to attract Medical Doctors to service the people in the northern part of the municipality.

Maternal Health Services

Antenatal service coverage increased from 121% (5548) to 187.6% (6251) in 2013. Coverage for late teenagers (10 - 19) increased from 736 in 2009 to 872 (14.4%) of the total antenatal registrants in 2013. Pregnant women registered with Anaemia increased from 43 in 2009 to 75 in 2013

The women who delivered in health facilities increased significantly from 3,455 in 2009 to 5099 (153%) in 2013. Out of this, 2.6% (110) had still births. Women in labour still report to health facilities late and others use all sorts of herbal preparations during labour before seeking health care. Others never visited the health facilities during pregnancy. Measures are required to encourage pregnant mothers to patronize pre-Natal and post-natal health care services to improve their health status and that of their babies.

Immunization

Immunization coverage for BCG, Measles, OPV and Yellow Fever has increased from about 86.94% on the average in 2009 to 120.5% in 2013. Table 33 shows Immunization coverage in the municipality in 2013.

The rate of child malnutrition in the municipality was 0.5%, as at 2013

Under Five, Infant and Maternal Mortality

The municipal Under Five Mortality Rate in 2013 was 1.3%. Malaria fatality was 0.6 and maternal mortality ratio was 140 per 100,000 live births (0.0014). There is the need to further reduce child and maternal mortalities in the municipality.

Potable Water Situation in the Municipality

The main sources of water supply for domestic use in the municipality are boreholes and pipe systems. Access to potable water supply in the municipality is 75%. Offinso is the only town in

the municipality with access to pipe-borne water. Even here, flow of water from pipe is still irregular, and also some people residing in the newly developed areas do not have access. The municipality relies on piped water produced from the Barekese Watar Treatment Plant which collects raw water from intake facility located on the Offin River. A project by GWCL to replace weak pipelines from the treatment station to Offinso scheduled to be completed in December 2012 had not been implemented.

Some private individuals have taken advantage of the water supply gap, and have provided mechanized bore holes within the urban and peri-urban areas of the municipality to serve the public. There are 32 such facilities in the municipality. However, the activities of these private water providers are currently not regulated, and therefore quality of water they provide to the public is not certain.

Rural potable water supply coverage is 38%. Manual boreholes are the main source of potable water supply in the rural areas of the municipality. There are 65 manual boreholes in the municipality, out of which 43 are functional. 22 have either broken down, have poor water quality or have very low yield. This situation is forcing the affected inhabitants to resort to non- potable sources.

Measures are required to ensure reliability of pipe borne water supply and its extension to the newly developed urban/peri-urban areas and to provide adequate facilities in deprived rural communities. There is also the need to protect the natural water sources and catchments areas (especially the Offin/Barekese Water Basin) from pollution and destruction of their vegetative cover. Measures are also required to regulate the activities of private potable water providers.