By Godfred Aaneamenga Polkuu
Bolgatanga, Feb. 28, GNA – Mr Alhassan Lawal, Bolgatanga Municipal Director of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), has announced that the municipality recorded 28 maternal deaths in 2025.
“Maternal deaths were one of the big issues we had in the municipality and even in the region as a whole. In the municipality, we recorded 28 maternal deaths,” he revealed.
The Director noted that even a single maternal death was unacceptable and expressed concern over the high figure.
“Out of the number, 24 were from the Regional Hospital. The remaining four were from private facilities,” he told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in a sideline interview at the 2025 annual health performance review meeting.
The meeting attracted senior managers and staff of the Service, including key health stakeholders, and provided an opportunity to assess performance and strategize for the coming years.
It was held under the theme: “Strengthening health systems for sustainable and equitable access to quality health care: the role of monitoring and supportive supervision.”
Mr Lawal said management was concerned about the situation, and steps were underway to drastically reduce maternal deaths, with a possible move toward zero in subsequent years.
Regarding Family Planning acceptance rates, Mr Lawal said that against a target of 40 per cent and a record of 40.2 per cent in 2024, the municipality recorded a decline to 37.5 per cent in 2025.
He also noted that National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) claim rejection was a challenge.
“Ideally, acceptable claim rejection is supposed to be less than five per cent. However, for the year 2025, we were at 7.5 per cent as compared to 2.5 per cent in the previous year, which means we are not performing very well in claim management,” Mr Lawal said.
On successes achieved, he indicated that per the holistic assessment of the GHS, “I must say that we are doing very well. At the end of our holistic assessment, we had a score of 4.13, which is within the highly performing zone.”
He said the municipality increased Pentavalent 3 (Penta 3) vaccine coverage from 99.3 per cent in 2024 to 104.2 per cent in 2025, against a target of 95 per cent.
Meanwhile, cases of anaemia in pregnancy at 36 weeks, which he said was a challenge for most districts, fell from 38.2 per cent in 2024 to 24.4 per cent in 2025.
“This is a negative indicator; when it is low, it means you are doing well, and when it is high, it means you are not doing well,” Mr Lawal, who is also Secretary to the Municipal and District Directors Group in the region, explained.
He added that the municipality significantly increased Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) coverage from 53.6 per cent in 2024 to 325 per cent in 2025.
The Director said that with the exception of the Regional Hospital, the municipality had only one medical officer attending to a population of about 153,538 people.
He said the medical officer was stationed at the Bolgatanga Health Centre, which serves as the Municipal Hospital, adding, “We render all healthcare services there, including surgeries.”
He further acknowledged that the three-block facility was inadequate for a Municipal Hospital.
“The infrastructure there is quite poor. As management, we have reached out to some benevolent people to support us in giving the facility a facelift,” he said.
GNA
Edited by Caesar Abagali /Audrey Dekalu