The Western Regional Health Directorate has devised a comprehensive strategy on maternal health care aimed at saving the lives of expectant mothers and their unborn babies.
The comprehensive strategy dubbed: “Be Part” would ensure that all relevant stakeholders including, families and particularly healthcare professionals worked together in both preventable services and lifesaving surgical procedures to ensure that figures on infant and maternal mortality were reduced to the lowest level.
Nana Dr Yaw Ofori Yeboah Regional Health Director announced this at the 2022 Annual Performance Review of the Directorate on the theme: “Accountability; A Key to Achieving Quality Healthcare.”
The Review meeting is used annually to assess the performance of the region in healthcare indicators, and on how the region could leverage on new opportunities and strategies to improve quality healthcare deliveries.
The region, he reported, chalked some remarkable gains regarding stillbirth and infant and maternal mortality.
According to him, between 2021 and 2022, the region managed to reduce still birth from15.7 percent to 8.9 per 100,000 live births.
Institutional maternal mortality ratio also improved from 118 to 95 per 100,000 a reduction of 25.2 percent during the same period.
He, therefore, called for stakeholder support in saving more lives of pregnant women as the year under review recorded two major health challenges that befell the Region; The Appiatse disaster and the Marbug disease and that with the resilience of health workers within Tarkwa, Bogoso, Prestea and the Regional Hospital in emergency care and preparedness, it was able to handle the situation.
He said though the region had an increase in the doctor to patient ratio, nurses’ attrition rate had become a matter of concern.
The review meeting also revealed how the region had advanced in health infrastructure; five new polyclinics, infectious disease centre, construction of new Regional Hospital and the rehabilitation works on the Regional Hospital to accelerate quality health care delivery.
Dr. Yeboah was enthusiastic about the support of numerous collaborators and partners in promoting quality health management in the Western Region.
He commended key personnel notably: Mr. Joseph Somuah, Francis Impriam, Esther Suapim, Cassious Nyame-bianca and Francisca Asare for their sacrifice and meritorious services particularly in the rural communities of the region.
Dr. Ebo Hammond, who represented the Director General of the Ghana Health Service, said the service had made significant strides in health systems strengthening, the supply chain systems, health information management and data protection.
“We have revitalised the scheduled delivery system, deployed the integrated logistics management information system (GhiLMIS) as far as the CHPS compounds was concerned, and made significant progress in the deployment of the E-tracker and Lightwave Health Information Management System (LHIMS).”
He said Data Protection Focal Persons have also been trained in all 16 regions to ensure that the GHS complied with data protection laws.
Dr. Hammond said to enhance the march towards the attainment of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by the year 2030, the service had deepened collaboration with partners towards re-designing Primary Health Care system to improve quality and provide a more patient-centred care.
He thus encouraged practitioners in the region to use the occasion to strategize in harnessing all resources towards quality health delivery.
The Western Regional Minister, Mr. Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah, said accountability was cardinal in achieving results and took pride in the decision of the Service to voluntary account for their stewardship to the nation.
He also spoke about the improvement in client service delivery, the need to avoid illegal and unapproved fees and give patients real customer experience as they searched for relief in health facilities.
Source: Ghana News Agency