Trained surveyors urged to make sure data is accurate

National

A GROUP of people trained to collate health data in Western Highlands have been advised to get reliable and accurate information from the people.
They are part of the 2016 demographic and health survey in Western Highlands.
Barry Rungwa, the executive officer to Governor Paias Wingti, said the programme would run from September to December.
The data is to help the provincial and national governments determine the health indicators of the people in the 22 provinces on 10 years’ time.
“When it comes to personal health matters, people might be unwilling to reveal their personal details. But you’ve got to be prepared to ask the appropriate questions to extract those details,” he said.
“The details you extract must be reliable and correct because the Government will rely on it to make decisions on (plan and budget) health programmes.
“Though we have the Provincial Health Authority which is running so many health programmes, the health status of the people in the province is unknown.
“Is Western Highlands a healthy province or an unhealthy province? That’s what we don’t know?”
We don’t know how many mothers we are losing, how many infants we are losing – infant mortality rate, at what percentage are we on?”