Choiseul province receive top health service award

 

Choiseul province has been named the best performing province of the year for health service delivery during the national health conference today in Honiara.

This is the first time the province has won the award by the Ministry of Health and Medical Services to the province with outstanding recorded improvements in health service delivery for last year.

Choiseul province last year recorded zero maternal deaths , reduced child mortality by 30 percent, reduced infant mortality by 15 percent and increased measles immunisation coverage by 26 percent.

The province also recorded a decrease in child undernourishment by 23 percent, brought down unsupervised birth deliveries by 10 percent, and was the province with the highest percentage of essential drug availability at health facilities.

Receiving the award was the Director of Choiseul provincial health service, Dr. Lazarus Dineko, who also scooped the best doctor’s award, saying he was deeply humbled by the award.

Dr Dineko said the award is a testimony of the hard work and commitment health workers in the province had shown over the years.

He said it also showed a positive outlook to the improvement of health services in the country.

“It shows that we contribute to make a difference in the country’s health sector, even though we are a small province but were add to the improvement in the country’s health indicator at the international stage,” he said.

“So the indicators contribute how we report internationally , with the our performance which will show how our health service scores against other regional countries.”

Despite the positive results, Dr. Dineko said the province’s health workers still face challenges to their everyday duties, which he said was the low number of staff, and poor logistics.

He said the province still has no proper roads and health workers mainly travel by boat.

“For this year and next year we are planning on engaging more nurses to work in community health centers,” he said.

“We are also working with communities to assists in terms of water supply, because we found out that nurses are more willing to work in communities with better water supply.”

 

By: Lowen Sei.