He said health service within the area has expanded in terms of quality in the municipality, following the commitment and diligence staff members of the health directorate have attached to their responsibilities.

The MCE, who was speaking at the 2017 annual performance review of the Asokore Mampong Health Directorate, mentioned inadequate public health facilities, personnel and medical laboratories as major challenges hindering quality health delivery within the municipality.

Inadequate health facilities within the area is having a toll on effective healthcare delivery.

Health workers are worried about the over reliance on health facilities outside the Municipality by residents since the area was carved out of the Kumasi Metropolis.

Health workers also say it is difficult to respond to emergencies, and also collate accurate data of health related issues.

Alhaji Seidu announced that the Assembly intends to put up a hospital in the municipality to serve residents.

He said this will also save residents the pain from traveling outside the municipality to access healthcare.

He also disclosed that plans were underway to put up health centers and polyclinics beginning with Parkoso by the end of 2018.

He said an abandoned sick bay situated at Sawaba will also be completed to add up to the upcoming health facilities in the area.

The Assembly, he indicated, is in talks with the family of a late philanthropist to acquire a land which was meant for a hospital.

The MCE commended health workers in the municipality for their commitment to duty, and urged them to work hard to benefit the people.

Health Director on facilities

Asokore Mampong Health Director, Ofori Amoah Justice, said the Municipality is in dire need of health facilities.

According to him, emergency cases that could have been managed within the municipality were sent to other health facilities.

Mr. Amoah also said the directorate continues to face challenges in getting accurate data for the number of people within the area who attended hospitals for a period of time.

“Another challenging event is also that OPD per capita, in other words, we are all supposed to go to hospital once in a year. And the question is how many of them went? It is not even up to half. There are only two factors that might lead to that, geographical access; it means that the facilities are not there or financial access. If the facilities are not there, obviously you can’t have people to cater for them. So we will need the health facilities going forward”.

The ceremony was also used to reward committed and hardworking health workers in the municipality.

The Asokore Mampong Health Directorate played a major role during the outbreak of Meningitis and H1N1 type A at the Kumasi Academy in 2017.

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By: Hafiz Tijani/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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This according to Alhaji Alidu Seidu, will address issues of indiscipline and make the governing of the municipality easier.

He cited the roaming of stray cattle on the streets of the area, insanitary conditions in some areas of the municipality, and the blocking of major streets for social events without permits as issues that need to be addressed with the strict enforcement of by-laws.

Alhaji Seidu made the remarks at a Town Hall meeting of the Asokore Mampong Municipal Assembly (AMMA), where stakeholders including staff members, departmental heads of the Assembly as well as traditional and religious leaders within the municipality attended.

The Asokore Mampong MCE touched on key areas of development including Education, Heath, Roads, Economy and Security, and has pledged to improve on them.

He maintained that the absence of by-laws and the failure of their enforcement will continue to pose threats to the development of the Assembly.

“At all times, you should have punitive measures to the actions of people and it is through by-laws that you have punitive measures for wrongdoers. In the absence of these laws how do we even take on persons who flout the laws? So it is a threat to the Assembly’s development” he said.

He assured that efforts are far advanced by the Assembly to establish such by-laws and also see to their enforcement.

He also further assured that the Asokore Mampong Municipality as an urban area will see major boost in infrastructural development which will effectively contribute to the socio-economic growth of the municipality.

He said the Assembly was engaging with chiefs in the area to put up an ultra-modern market facility at Parkoso.

The market he revealed, will contain an abattoir which will save the over 100 young men from the municipality who go to the Kumasi abattoir every day to ply their trade.

He called on all stakeholders to support the Assembly in its developmental agenda since the progress of the municipality was a shared responsibility.

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By: Hafiz Tijani/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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The Municipal Chief Executive nominee, Alhaji Alidu Seidu, failed to get two thirds of the votes of the Assembly members during his confirmation on Friday.

Eight of the 15 Assembly members voted ‘No’ while seven noted ‘Yes.’

The Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei Mensah, who was at the assembly prior to the election, called on the Assembly members to give the MCE nominee 100% votes, but this apparently fell on deaf ears.

The meeting was subsequently adjourned indefinitely following a commotion after the declaration of the result.

Meanwhile, the Regional Minister is currently in a meeting with all the Assembly Members.

Alhaji Seidu was among 212 persons named by the President to fill the vacant positions of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives in the various assemblies nationwide.

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By: Lauretta Timah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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He added destroying the militant group will take time because of the power vacuum in Syria, the abundance of battle hardened fighters that grew out of al-Qaeda in the Iraqi war, and the need to build coalitions, including with local Sunni communities.

Islamic State released a video on Tuesday showing the beheading of the U.S. journalist, the second American hostage to be killed within weeks, in retaliation for U.S. air strikes in Iraq.

“The bottom line is this, our objective is clear and that is to degrade and destroy (Islamic State) so that it’s no longer a threat not just to Iraq but also the region and to the United States,” Obama told a news conference.

“Whatever these murderers think they will achieve with killing innocent Americans like Steven, they have already failed,” Obama said. “They failed because, like people around the world, Americans are repulsed by their barbarism. We will not be intimidated.”

U.S and British officials both examined the video, showing the same British-accented executioner who appeared in an Aug. 19 video of the killing of U.S. journalist James Foley, concluding it was authentic.

The United States resumed air strikes in Iraq in August for the first time since the pullout of U.S. troops in 2011 and Obama said the strikes are already proving effective.

“Those that make the mistake of harming Americans will learn that we will not forget and that our reach is long and that justice will be served,” he said.

“This is not going to be a one-week or one-month or six month proposition because of what’s happened in the vacuum of Syria, as well as the battle hardened elements of (Islamic State) that grew out of Al Qaeda in Iraq during the course of the Iraq war … it’s going to take time for us to be able to roll them back.”

The White House said late on Tuesday that Obama was sending three top officials — Secretary of State John Kerry, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and counterterrorism adviser Lisa Monaco — to the Middle East “in the near-term to build a stronger regional partnership” against Islamic State militants.

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Source: Reuters

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The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the soldiers were captured while attempting to flee to Hama province after IS stormed the Tabqa airbase.

Twitter accounts belonging to jihadists had boasted about 200 deaths, it added.

On Wednesday, photos and a video were posted online that appeared to show dozens of men in their underwear being marched through the desert at gunpoint.

In the video, militants shout “Islamic State” and “There is no going back”.

In images published earlier this week, IS fighters wearing balaclavas could be seen shooting dead at least seven kneeling men at the airbase.

‘Mass atrocities’

Tabqa airbase – near the northern city of Raqqa, an IS stronghold – fell to IS on Sunday after weeks of fierce fighting.

The Observatory said 346 IS fighters and more than 170 members of the security forces were killed in the final battle, which lasted five days.

The head of the Observatory, Rami Abdul Rahman, told the AFP news agency that about 1,400 troops had been stationed at the airbase, 700 of whom managed to escape.

Two hundred appeared to have been caught and executed by IS as they attempted to cross the desert to government-held territory in the Orontes Valley to the west, he said. Another 500 men were on the run, he added.

After the airbase’s capture, Syrian state television said the army was “regrouping” and that a “successful evacuation” had taken place.

On Tuesday, UN investigators said Islamic State militants had committed “mass atrocities” in Syria and had recruited children as fighters.

Their report said public killings were a “common spectacle” in areas run by the jihadist group and that local people were forced to watch.

At the same time, the investigators said that Syrian government forces had also committed atrocities by dropping barrel bombs and chlorine gas from helicopters, shelling hospitals and torturing and killing civilians.

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Source: BBC

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