Ghana Health Service calls for innovative means to achieve MDGs

The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has called on the country’s health institutions to introduce innovative means to improve on reproductive health in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) four and five.

MDG four and five aims at reducing child and maternal mortality.

Dr Frank Nyonator, Acting Director General of the GHS who made the call on Wednesday in Takoradi noted that to attain the MDGs “it is very obvious now that we (Ghana) need to do things differently”.

He was speaking at the fourth, three-day conference on the Promise Maternal Infant Survival Excellence (PROMISE) organised by the Western Regional Health Directorate for its key health personnel in the region.

The conference is aimed at assessing the performance of the PROMISE Initiative, which was introduced in 2008 to help reduce maternal death and improve skilled delivery as well as the adoption of new strategies to chalk out more medical successes.

The conference is being held on the theme: “Supporting the mother to give life; a concern for all.”

Dr Nyonator said although Ghana is on the track to achieve most of the MDGs by 2015 “it appears unlikely that it will be able to achieve the three main health related goals, especially those on four and five”.

He commended the Regional Health Directorate for the PROMISE Initiative as it has “attracted the attention of senior managers of the health service”.

Dr Mrs Linda Vanotoo, Regional Health Director explained that following the high still births, which was more than 1,200 and maternal death recorded annually, the Directorate introduced the PROMISE.

This approach, she said, has yielded success to reduce the still births and maternal deaths and increased skill delivery among other interventions.

Source: GNA