Out of that number, 1,102,245, representing 33 per cent, has been fully vaccinated, while 1,667,201, representing 51 per cent, has received the first dose of the vaccine.

Speaking at the opening session of its annual performance review in Accra on March 2, 2022, the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, commended the regional directorate for the great job done in containing the disease in the region, while ensuring continuity for other essential health services, regardless of being the worst hit region.

The two-day meeting brought together representatives from all public health facilities in the region and other stakeholders to review the performance of the region for 2021 in terms of its successes and challenges and plan the way forward for improved healthcare services for all in the region.

The theme for the annual review is: “Advancing universal health coverage through enhanced people engagement, effective data management and appropriate technology in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

“You deserve to be commended for this feat. If you were an island, all COVID-19 restrictions would have been eased by this achievement,” Dr Kuma-Aboagye said.

Improved system

Dr Kuma-Aboagye said notwithstanding the ravaging impact of the COVID-19, it had contributed to the building of a more robust and better responsive health system capable of dealing with any future pandemic effectively.

He said the improved system included expanding vaccine storage and transportation infrastructure to accommodate ultra-low temperature storage vaccines.

He assured the public that the improved health system would be maintained and activated when it became necessary.

Dr Kuma-Aboagye said the annual performance review was a demonstration of the commitment and willingness of health institutions and directorates to hold themselves accountable before their various stakeholders.

Throwing more light on the essence of the meeting, the Greater Accra Regional Health Director, Dr Mrs Charity Sarpong, said it was to take stock of the collective regional performance in the delivery of a comprehensive healthcare service for the distinguished people of the Greater Accra Region in 2021.

She said in line with the theme for the year, the directorate undertook a number of activities, which included capacity building, enhanced collaboration with other healthcare providers outside the public sector and quasi-government health facilities and improvement in the region’s Telemedicine Centre to enable it function appropriately and support in the referral of cases from one level to the next level of health care.

“We also continued to utilise the Kybele Referral platform to improve the referral of pregnant women and newborns across the different levels of health care in the region.

NCDs

Dr Mrs Sarpong said to address the increasing cases of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in the region, it had ensured that all its district hospitals and some of its heath centres had functional wellness clinics.

She said 23 community wellness clinics were also successfully established.

She said for the year under review, the total Outpatient Department attendance increased by about 24 per cent from 4,180,901 in 2020 to 5,168,635 in 2021.

“This is good news to us, as it reflects the growing confidence of the populace in our services and also improvement in our data capture.

Whereas 50.8 per cent of our OPD attendees were insured in 2020, only 48.6 per cent were insured in 2021, and we intend to intensify our advocacy and efforts to encourage persons to renew their NHIA registration or register with the NHIA if they have not done so,” she said.

She acknowledged the sacrifices, hard work and dedication of the workforce, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, saying that their high level of professionalism and commitment to their duties propelled the success story of the region.