Postnatal care within 48 hours achieved 99.97 per cent coverage, exceeding the national target, while Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) testing among pregnant women under the Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) programme reached 99.9 per cent.

Syphilis screening among pregnant women also remained high at 99.81 per cent.

One of the district’s most notable achievements was the increase in skilled delivery coverage, which rose from 82.14 per cent in the first half of 2025 to 98.16 per cent in 2026.

Mr Stephen Bordotsiah, District Director of the GHS, disclosed this at the Service’s 2026 half-year performance review meeting in the district.

The meeting brought together healthcare professionals, heads of institutions and other stakeholders from within and outside the district to review activities undertaken during the period and strategise to improve healthcare delivery.

Mr Bordotsiah attributed the improved performance to increased utilisation of skilled birth attendants and the collective commitment of healthcare professionals to improving maternal health outcomes.

He said the district also made progress in malaria prevention during pregnancy, with coverage of the third dose of Intermittent Preventive Treatment for malaria in pregnancy (IPTp3) increasing from 64.56 per cent to 69.90 per cent.

He added that anaemia among pregnant women at 36 weeks declined from 38.89 per cent to 34.34 per cent, attributing the improvement to enhanced maternal nutrition and strengthened antenatal care interventions.

Despite the progress, Mr Bordotsiah expressed concern about several indicators that fell below the district’s targets.

“Our stillbirth rate has increased to 13.59 per 1,000 births, exceeding our target of fewer than 11 per 1,000 births. This calls for renewed commitment to quality antenatal, intra-partum and emergency obstetric care,” he said.

He said the Family Planning acceptor rate also declined to 35.07 per cent, below the district target of 40 per cent.

“This trend requires intensified community engagement, improved counselling services and stronger male involvement in family planning programmes,” he added.

Mr Bordotsiah identified immunisation coverage as another area of concern, noting that Measles-Rubella second dose (MR2) coverage declined sharply to 74.14 per cent, significantly below the 95 per cent target.

Vitamin A supplementation also reached only 54.53 per cent, against a target of 80 per cent.

“These gaps expose our children to preventable illnesses and must be addressed through strengthened outreach services, community mobilisation and improved defaulter tracing,” the Director said.

He further disclosed that Outpatient Department (OPD) attendance per capita remained low at 0.71, compared with the expected 1.2, suggesting that many residents were either delaying seeking healthcare or accessing services outside the district.

Mr Bordotsiah, however, said Tuberculosis (TB) interventions recorded encouraging progress, with screening coverage improving by 49.16 percentage points, approaching the district target of 50 per cent.

On sub-district performance, the Director congratulated the Tilli/Widnaba Sub-District for emerging as the overall best-performing sub-district, with a composite score of 88 points.

“I equally commend Boya/Gbantongo, Sapelliga/Googo, Zebilla South and Zongoire, which jointly secured second position with 82 points each,” he said.

He encouraged the lower-performing sub-districts to remain focused and use the review exercise to identify gaps and adopt best practices.

“I encourage Tanga/Timonde and Zebilla North not to be discouraged but to use today’s review as an opportunity to identify gaps and learn from the best-performing teams,” he added.