According to the Regional Health Directorate, 20% of other health staff posted to the region within the same period also turned down the offer.

Dr. Chrysantus Kubio, the Savannah Regional Director of the Ghana Health Service, disclosed this at an annual performance review meeting in Damongo.

The situation, Dr. Kubio said, is hampering healthcare delivery in the region and called on stakeholders in the various municipalities and districts to institute measures that will attract personnel to the area.

“The region received 1,133 new staff, out of which 225 failed to report, representing a 20% posting rejection rate.”

“Going into specific professions, medical officers’ posting rejection rate was 85% and that is huge.”

That notwithstanding, Dr. Kubio said the region made significant gains in key indicators within the same period.

He said the outbreak of Yellow Fever in the region has been brought under control and improvements made in the testing and vaccination against COVID-19.

“We successfully controlled the outbreak of Yellow Fever in the region, and we were able to respond and provided vaccines to the targeted population we were looking out for, and our coverage was almost 100%.”

“23% of the regional targeted population for COVID-19 has been vaccinated; the region increased the testing of malaria before treating from 76.3% to 86.6 percent and significantly reduced malaria case fatality from 0.23% to 0.07%.”