By Godfred A. Polkuu
Bolgatanga, Aug. 23, GNA – The Upper East Regional Health Directorate of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) has recorded 24 maternal deaths in the first half of 2024.
“A total of 24 maternal deaths were recorded between January and June this year, compared to 15 deaths for the same period in 2023,” Dr Samuel Kwabena Boakye-Boateng, the Regional Director of the GHS said.
He described the situation as “unacceptable” for expectant mothers to lose their lives in the event of childbirth, saying “We are sad and pained to have recorded an increase in the number of maternal deaths within the period.”
Dr Boakye-Boateng disclosed this in his address in Bolgatanga at the 2024 mid-year performance review meeting of the GHS on the theme: “Using Network of Practice to drive universal access to quality maternal health care in the Upper East Region”.
According to him, their quest for zero tolerance for maternal deaths could only be achieved if all stakeholders collaborated effectively to strengthen community and health facility factors that continued to linger and thwart their efforts at eliminating preventable maternal deaths.
“It is for this reason that the region is fully leveraging on the opportunities and strengths that comes with deliberately connecting health facilities into networks of practice to reverse this trend in maternal deaths and improve other key performance indicators in the coming days, weeks, months, and years.
“It is an all of society and an all-government approach, and I throw the challenge to all our development partners and stakeholders gathered here to continue to work closely with us as we sustain our gains for the first half of the year and reverse all our negatives,” he said.
Dr Boakye-Boateng said the Service would continue to increase its accountability to the communities it served, with the belief that, together, they could change the narrative, and noted that despite the high maternal deaths, the general regional performance across the three health sector objectives by the end of June 2024 was good.
He said malaria was the leading cause of Out-Patient Department (OPD) attendance with poor outcomes among certain vulnerable groups such as children under five and pregnant women.
“It is therefore refreshing to mention that as a region, we have not had any child under five dying from malaria during the period under review. OPD attendance for malaria is also recording a declining trend over the years.
“As we complete the Point Mass Distribution of Long-Lasting Insecticide Nets and prepare for the next round of Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention, I urge all of you to fully embrace and support these evidence-based interventions so we can eventually eliminate malaria from Ghana,” he said.
Dr Boakye-Boateng said Family Planning (FP) acceptor rate which measured proportion of couples who are currently practicing one or other methods of FP, saw a slight increase from 18.6 percent to 19.3 percent over the same period last year.
He said the Pusiga, Nabdam and Builsa North Districts were the main drivers of the FP performance, “This is important as it plays a critical role in shaping multiple dimensions of societal progress, including fertility management, poverty alleviation, gender equality, and women’s empowerment.”
He said the proportion of expectant women who made at least four Antenatal clinic visits to their healthcare providers saw an increase from 80.5 percent to 86.7 percent with Nabdam, Bawku Municipal and Garu making the greatest contribution.
Dr Boakye-Boateng said the period under review also witnessed an increased number of doctors who accepted posting to the Region, and that reduced the Doctor to population ratio from 1:18979 to 1:17833 over the same period.
He acknowledged that “These modest gains will not have been possible without the collective effort of all herein gathered and, especially our committed staff.”
Alhaji Dr Hafiz Bin Salih, the Upper East Regional Minister, recognized the significant improvements and declines in some of the indicators in maternal and child health, FP acceptor rate, antenatal care, supervised delivery, neonatal and maternal mortality rates.
He said the decline in trend was not good enough and expressed the hope that “we would collectively proffer strategies to enhance these indicators.”
GNA