Dr. Damien Punguyire, the Upper West Regional Director of Health Services, has stated that the political instability in Burkina Faso and Mali is continuing to burden health facilities in the Upper West Region.
As of January this year, there were around 8,507 immigrants, including 1,036 children under five years, who have settled in the Sissala East and West Districts alone. This has caused the health services in the region to become over-stretched while trying to meet the health needs of this extra population.
“The political instability in Burkina Faso and Mali continues to exert undue stress on our health facilities and the service in the region.” Data on the immigrant population gathered by the health service in collaboration with UNICEF and GIS revealed that as of the end of January, this year, there were some 8,507 immigrants including 1,036 children under five years who have temporally settled in Sissala East and West Districts alone.”
“This number excludes the permanent residents from those countries. The service is being over-stretched in its attempt to meet the health needs of this extra population, in terms of vaccination, water, sanitation and hygiene, nutrition services, and medical needs,” he added.
Dr. Punguyire has appealed to the Municipal and District Chief Executives in the region to prioritize health in the Gulf of Guinea Northern Regions Social Cohesion (SOCO) Project.
“I think our MMDCEs who are present here in their numbers need to prioritize health especially in the SOCO project and that will help in addressing our challenges.”
He made these comments at the opening of a three-day 2023 Annual Health Sector Performance Review Meeting in Wa. The review meeting was on the theme: “Embracing the Networks of Practice (NOP) approach to improve health outcomes in the Upper West Region.”
The Regional Health Director expressed concern about the high attrition rate of health workers in the region. He disclosed that in 2023, 134 staff members left the region while only 35 joined.
He said “another serious challenge facing the region is staff attrition. During the year under review, 134 staff left the region on transfer compared 35 staff who joined us. Even though the number of medical doctors in the region keeps increasing year after year, the majority of them are currently in school for their post-graduate training (some will be away for over six years) which implies that they are not readily available for service delivery.”
The review meeting was attended by district and municipal directors of health services in the region, chiefs, NGO’s and health partners.