The Ghana Health Service has dispelled allegations that it is massaging figures it puts out in relation to the number of persons who may have contracted the novel coronavirus as well as those who may have died from the virus.
Pressure group, OccupyGhana in an opinion piece titled, “Dear Ghana, have we decided to live with the virus?” accused the Government of not reporting the accurate death toll figures. The group sought to suggest that there ought to be a higher number of reported fatalities based on the recent increase in COVID-19 cases across the country.
But the Ghana Health Service in a rebuttal rejected the assertions, suggesting the need for some education in order for members of the group to appreciate the process the Service goes through before announcing deaths related to COVID-19 patients.
“We wish to state categorically that Ghana Health Service does not manipulate the data collated from the regions. The reporting on data including deaths and recoveries at the National level goes beyond just numbers and includes epidemiological and clinical states of the cases. It requires a bit more time to verify and validate. In that context, the Regional-level data will normally be higher than the national data at any given time.
“There are Treatment Centers across the Regions supported by the National Case Management team. All reported COVID-19 related data including deaths are reported through our reporting channels (facility-district-region-national).
All deaths reported from treatment centres in the districts are thoroughly reviewed by the National Case Management Team with Regions to validate the cause of death, presentation of the case, care and treatment given and lessons learnt and also eliminate any possible double counting. It is after this certification that the numbers are added to the national data published.
“Going by this norm, the region will first report through the Situational report to Director-General and other partners. We must remember that that the Regional Health Administration is part of the Ghana Health Service and as such if there is a grand scheme to massage the figures on deaths as is being alleged, the region will not report such figures through its situational report.
This allegation of data massaging, in our opinion is very unfair and an affront to our professional integrity,” the Ghana Health Service stated in reply to OccupyGhana
