Attendance at out patient departments (OPDs) of health institutions in the Central Region, increased from 863, 388 in 2006 to 1,643,618 last year. This was due to the patronage of the National Health Insurance Scheme by the people, which increased from 38 per cent in 2006 to 48 per cent last year. Dr Aaron Offei, Regional Director of Health Services, made these known at the opening of a two-day annual performance review conference of the Service, under the theme “Achieving the Millennium Development Goals-a challenge for all,” at Cape Coast on Wednesday. He said during the year under review, the region was selected among the high ranking performing regions in the country in the area of disease surveillance. Dr Offei said tuberculosis cure rate for last year was 71.6 per cent, a 10 per cent increase over that of the previous year. He said sentinel survey results of HIV/AIDS in the region for last year was 2.9 per cent, sixth on the national scale while prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) centres also increased from 14 to 23. Dr Offei said apart from Twifo Praso, Apam Catholic and Abura Dunkwa Hospitals, all hospitals in the region have started providing ante-retroviral treatment to people living with HIV/AIDS and expressed hoped that all hospitals including private ones would soon be taken on board this year. He said malaria continued to be the number one disease reported at the OPDs and that this year, a total of 371,263 cases has already been recorded. Dr Offei urged health workers to work harder to prevent maternal mortality. Nana Ato Arthur, Central regional Minister, in a speech read on his behalf, said government would continue to improve infrastructure to promote health care delivery for all Ghanaians. Nana Kwesi Atta II, Paramount Chief of the Ogua Traditional Area, urged health personnel to work assiduously to prevent malaria and maternal deaths. Source: GNA