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We shall not release corpse without certification – GHS Director

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Madam Juliana Akugre Anam-Erime, the Builsa North Municipal Director of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) in the Upper East Region, has cautioned residents in the Municipality to desist from demanding bodies of their relatives from the Sandema Hospital without due certification from the Medical Superintendent.

She expressed concern about the attitude of some residents, who immediately demand the bodies of their relatives for burial without certification of death by the Medical Officer.

“No certification, no corpse will be released. It is a policy in the GHS and until a Medical Doctor certifies a death case, no nurse can certify the death of a patient. We take a lot of things for granted and that comes back to haunt us,” she said.

Madam Anam-Erime said this at the 2021 health performance review meeting of the Municipality held on the theme: “Harnessing the contribution of all stakeholders in reducing the high occurrences of maternal deaths in the Upper East Region.”

The programme brought together health professionals from across all six Sub-districts of the GHS and other stakeholders to review their performance in the past year and strategize to improve health care delivery in the Municipality in 2022.

The Director appealed to stakeholders, especially Assembly Members to sensitize their community members to adhere to the protocol of the Hospital in cases of death and not rush to demand bodies of their relatives for burial before the Medical Superintendent’s examination and certification of death.

On performance indicators in the Municipality for the year under review, Madam Anam-Erime disclosed that the Family Planning rate increased from 17 per cent in 2020 to 36 per cent in 2021 while the proportion of deliveries attended to by trained health professionals also increased from 59.4 per cent to 80 per cent within the same period.

She said even though institutional maternal mortality stood at 218/100,000 live birth, with the target of 125/100,000 live births.

“It is worth noting that for the past three years, the Municipality has not recorded under five institutional death.”

She said there was a massive increase from 98 per cent to 99.9 per cent in pregnant women’s fourth visit to Antenatal Clinics with an increase in viral load testing from 29 per cent to 89 per cent in the year under review.

Percentage of deaths that were medically certified, reduced from 92.1 per cent in 2020 to 70 per cent in 2021 and anaemia in pregnant women at 36 weeks though saw a reduction from 51 per cent to 49.6 per cent, was insignificant, she said.

Dr Emmanuel Kofi Dzotsi, the Regional Director of the GHS, in a speech delivered on his behalf, said the Region was perceived as unattractive and therefore had difficulty in attracting and retaining critical health staff such as Doctors, Midwives, Nurses and Physician Assistants.

“The 54 Medical Officers and 721 Midwives are woefully inadequate to effectively execute their mandate,” he said and urged stakeholders in the Municipality to provide accommodation, rural area incentives packages, early promotions and study leave among others to attract and retain health professionals.

The Regional Director commended health professionals and other stakeholders in the Municipality for the central role they played to consolidate the Municipal health delivery efforts and stressed the need for members of the public to continue to observe the COVID-19 safety protocols.

Source: GNA

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