Achieving free maternal mortality is my top priority -Kumbuor

The Deputy Minister of Health, Dr. Benjamin Kumbuor yesterday appeared before the Appointments Committee of Parliament to outline his vision and priorities when given the nod to become the substantive Minister of Health. Dressed in traditional smock apparel and in his usual calm mood, Dr. Kumbour told the Committee that his number one priority is to ensure a society free maternal mortality in the country.

According to him, what was so significant about maternal mortality was when women go to hospital to give birth and end up loosing their life, a situation he described as “a very cardinal issue” bedevilling the health sector.

He outlined three factors contributing to maternal mortality, namely - the decision for the woman to have the child in a health facility, moving an expectant mother from home to the health facility depending on the infrastructure in the particular vicinity, and the health personnel's attitude towards the health facility when an expectant mother arrives at the hospital.

“It is interesting when you realise that only 35% of women in labour have access to competent midwives who deal with delivery issues, and I think this issue is a major concern that the Ministry has to address,” he noted.

He reiterated that the issue of maternal mortality is very rampant in the country and has been on the agenda of every government of the day. The worst region that experiences high maternal mortality rate is the Ashanti Region.

But in addressing this issue which is one of the main pillars of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the Health Minister designate said the benchmark that has been set needs to be given a national attention and to scale up activities of the MDGs.

Since 2007, the government of Ghana, operating under the Ministry of Health initiated a number of programmes to address the ever increasing maternal mortality rate in the country.

They are; Safe-Motherhood Initiative, Prevention Maternal Mortality Programme (PMM), Making Pregnancy Safer Initiative, Maternal and Neonatal Health Programme, Ghana VAST Survival Programme, Maternal Health Project, Prevention and Management of Safe Abortion Programme, Intermittent Preventive Treatment (IPT) and Roll Back Malaria Programme.

The goal of this initiative is to reduce by three-quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio in the country. Touching on the issue of sustainability of the one time premium for the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to address the health needs of the people, Dr. Kumbour enumerated a number of challenges that need to be addressed to make the government's vision a reality.

He said the biggest challenge confronting managers of the Scheme is the claim processes, because he believes that the claims settlement is reducing the confidence level of the providers to the Scheme. 45% of health services in the country are provided by the private sector, with the remaining 55%, provided by state institutions.

Dr. Kumbuor, therefore, assured the Committee that interest in the NHIS would be rekindled to make sure that there is enough sensitization on the challenges, to make sure that the problems are put to rest.