The Ashanti Regional Directorate of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) has announced renewed action to stem the rising trend of maternal mortality, as 889 mothers died from birth complications from 2020 to 2024.
Ashanti Regional Director of Health Dr Fred Adomako – Boateng made the disclosure at the INTEGRATED 2024 ANNUAL PERFORMANCE REVIEW AND FIRST QUARTER HEALTH SYSTEM INNOVATIONS REVIEW Meeting in Kumasi.
He disclosed that Institutional Maternal Mortality Ratio per 100,000 live births in the year 2020 was 105 maternal deaths meaning 124 mothers actually died),
For the year 2021 there were 132 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births constituting 168 mothers.
The number inched up to 181 mothers dying in the year 2022 constituting 134 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births.
The number of mothers dying through birth reached an alarming 217 in the year 2023 reflecting the year’s institutional maternal mortality of 167 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in 2023.
The number dropped to 199 deaths constituting 166 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in 2024 against a target of 125 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births.
Dr Adomako – Boateng described the figures as heart breaking with a call for a doubling of efforts across the board to halt the preventable deaths.
“Cumulatively, why should 889 women die in giving life? We are grateful for UNICEF support as we seek to address this challenge, but time is not on our side as we race to achieve the target of 70 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births by 2030, the clock is ticking,” he charged.
He called for a raft of pragmatic solutions proposing that the Ashanti Region adopts the 2020 maternal mortality ratio of 105 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births; as its target for 2025 describing the benchmark as one of the best performing years as regards maternal mortality.
Strengthening Primary Healthcare
Dr Fred Adomako – Boateng emphasized the need for primary healthcare to be strengthened across all tiers of the Health Service insisting that complications could be identified and remedied before reaching aggravated stages that result in needless deaths.
“It is based on this and other challenges, that after much deliberations we settled on the theme, “Strengthening Primary Health Care PHC) through Networks of Practice (NoP) towards Universal Health Coverage: the Role of Stakeholders,” he pointed out.
Buttressing the point, he contended that the community-based health planning services (CHPs) compounds in the community, the Health Centers in the sub-districts and District Hospitals could manage more than 80% of health needs of the population with the needed attention and support.
“However, this is not the case, and most of these minor illnesses end up at the secondary and tertiary levels which unnecessarily increases the burden of work at these levels invariably impacting on quality-of-service,” He bemoaned.
Other Indicators
The holistic audit of the Health Service in the Ashanti Region was conducted by officials from the Oti Regional Health Directorate as part of a broader objective to foster peer review among health directorates.
Cardinal among the findings on indicators shared by the Health Directorate was the uptake of Family Planning Methods; Antenatal Attendance; nurse to doctor ratio; incidence of non-communicable diseases among others.
Family planning Acceptor rate posted an upward progression from 22.5% in 2020, 28.2% in 2021, 27.4% in 2022, 31.7% in 2023 and 32.6% in 2024 against a target of 40%.
Proportion of mothers who made at least four ANC visits was 74% in 2020, 82.8% in 2021, 90.3% in 2022, 95% in 2023 and 81.8% in 2024 against a target of 85%.
The Ashanti Region performed poorly in the proportion of deliveries attended by trained health workers. The region was ranked 53.5% in 2020, 60.7% in 2021, 60.5% in 2022, 57% in 2023 and 52.5% in 2024 against the target of 65%.
Doctor to population ratio was 1 doctor to 17, 169 people in 2020, 1 doctor to 5, 529 in 2021; 1 doctor to 5, 605 in 2022, 1 doctor to 5, 380 in 2023 and 1 doctor to 5, 614 people against a target of 1 doctor to 7,500.
Nurse to population ratio was 1 nurse to 7169 in 2020; 1nurse to 554 in 2021; 1:600 in 2022; 1 nurse to 490 in 2023 and 1 nurse to 614 in 2024 against a target of 1 nurse to 450.
Regional Medical Stores:
The Ashanti Regional Director of Health Dr Fred Adomako Boateng, made a passionate appeal for a new Regional Medical Store for the Region explaining that the region’s needs have outgrown the 47-year-old Regional Medical Store constructed in 1978.
He argued that while the region’s population had grown from 1.3 million at the time the regional medical store was built to a population of more than 5 million, more health facilities and hospitals have been built across the region overstretching the capacity of the regional medical store.
“The Warehouse as we have at now in Ashanti Region can no longer serve the purpose for which it was created, we must construct and expand the current physical infrastructure,” he noted.
The 2024 ANNUAL PERFORMANCE REVIEW AND FIRST QUARTER HEALTH SYSTEM INNOVATIONS REVIEW Meeting was attended by past and president managers, directors and staff of the Ghana Health Service; the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Prof. Samuel Kaba Akoriyea and invited traditional and religious leaders of the Ashanti Region.
