Bono East R. C.C commends Health Directorate for maternal death reduction

Mr. George Padmore Mensah Chief Director at the Bono East Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) has commended the Regional Health Services of the Ghana Health Services (GHS) for its timely and proactive measures taken in for the reduction of maternal mortality in the region.

Mr. Mensah noted that available data on maternal mortality at the Regional Health Directorate indicates that the ratio reduced from 105 per 100,000 live births in 2019 to 92 per 100,000 live births in 2020 and that this was commendable, indeed health workers should continue to provide such quality health delivery to ensure that no woman dies while giving life.

Mr Mensah was speaking on Monday during the Bono East Regional Maiden Mid-Year performance review at the College of Health and Wellbeing in Kintampo and said even though the Service was providing the needed quality health service delivery to the people, there is the need to identify gaps and analyse the root causes of challenges for action to improve on delivery.

Touching on the theme: “Continuity of Quality Service Delivery in the Midst of Covi-19”, Mr. Mensah pointed out that as the country response to the Covid-19 Pandemic, the health Services System faces an additional burden of maintaining continuity in essential health services and that disruption in such services could trap the country with fragile health services systems in a protracted public health crisis.

Mr Mensah expressed optimism that the path to recovery has finally begun with the arrival of the COVID-19 vaccine in the country and urged all to debunk fallacies and controversies that people are putting out about the vaccine, saying the vaccine has been certified by the Food and Drugs Authority and is the complementary measure for breaking the Covid-19 transmission.

He hinted that the capacity to deliver health services may be impaired by resource allocation towards pandemic response and could overburden health workforce, again on the demand side, people may avoid health facilities due to fear of exposure and financial pressure to deny the ability to pay for services.

The Chief Director further urged the stakeholders in the services to regularly monitor the continuity of essential health services identify which services are disrupted, quantify the level of disruption, and matching them with knowledge of the local context which would better inform the public health response.

Dr. Fred Adomako-Boateng, Bono East Regional Health Director, expressed worry over the family planning acceptor rate in the region as it reduced from 41.1% in 2019 to 40.1% in 2020, the pregnant women at least 4 antenatal care visits also reduced from 76% in 2019 to 74.4% in 2020.

Dr. Adomako-Boateng said these areas were at the core of primary health care and universal health coverage and that there is the need to work hard as stakeholders to improve on the situation.

He urged stakeholders in the health sector to complement the effort of the services in bringing quality health to the doorsteps of the people by supporting in diverse ways to achieving universal health care in the country.

----GNA