WR records increase in maternal deaths
Dr. Emmanuel Tinkorang, the Western Regional Director of Ghana Health Service said though the Region had improved upon supervised delivery and family planning coverage, maternal mortality still increased from 75 cases in 2015 to 92 cases in 2016.
He said the utilization of health services in the Region also dropped significantly from 1.4 per cent in 2015 to 1.2 per cent in the year under review, adding that hospital admission rate reduced, with antenatal care coverage also dropping.
Dr. Tinkorang revealed this at the 2016 Regional Health Directorate’s Performance Review meeting in Takoradi on the theme: “Reduction of Maternal and New-born Mortality through Improving Quality of Care”.
The Regional Health Director said 2016 was a challenging year in terms of funding for health service delivery, logistics supplies and drugs needed for effective service delivery.
Dr. Tinkorang, in this regard, said the Region would continue to focus on strategies to reduce high maternal and new-born deaths.
He said the Region however performed creditably in TB control programmes as the cure rate improved from 65 per cent in 2014 to 84 per cent in 2015, with treatment success also increased from 89 per cent to 91 per cent in 2015, and called for more TB case detection.
Dr. Tinkorang said the Region consistently performed well in all disease surveillance indicators and that the Region reported 87 Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP), 164 suspected measles, 145 suspected yellow fever and 44 guinea worm rumour with every district reporting at least one case of AFP.
He said OPD attendance for malaria also improved stressing, “we will continue to train staff in Malaria case management and provide supportive supervision to improve diagnosis and management.
He explained that hospitals in the Region had adopted peer review monitoring as key strategies to improve quality of care, scaled up CHPS implementation with functional CHPS facilities increased from 291 in 2015 to 569 in 2016.
Dr. Tinkorang acknowledged the contributions of traditional leaders, donor partners and health service staff for the great work done, adding, “I urge all staff to strive to work hard within the constraints.”
Nana Kofi Abuna V, Chief of Essipon, who chaired the event called for new innovations to the strategies under the “PROMISE” to help save the lives of mothers and new born.
She was hopeful that the outcome of the review meeting would further strengthen and accelerate the reduction of maternal, new-born and child mortality rates to enable Ghana to achieve the targets of the Sustainable Development Goal three, which sought to ensure health and the well –being at every stage of life.
In a speech read on his behalf, Dr. Appiah Denkyira, the Out-going Director-General of the Ghana Health Service said the Service had outlined priority areas such as the scaling up of CHPS activities, emergency care and preparedness, commodity security and supply chain, financial management and data quality improvement to serve as a guide in 2017.
He said it was expected that these priority areas once pursued would yield the expected outcome and contribute to the improvement in the lives of the general population.
Source: GNA