Ashanti Region records 232 maternal deaths in six months
A total of 232 maternal deaths were recorded between January and June this year in the Ashanti Region, the figure showing a surge in maternal mortality in the region within this year’s half year period as compared to what was recorded in two previous years.
Within the same period in 2023, the region recorded 144 maternal deaths while in 2024, a total of 158 deaths were recorded.
The Regional Director of Health Services, Dr Fred Adomako-Boateng who shared the statistics stated: “This against a national target of 125 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births” he stressed.
Dr Adomako-Boateng was speaking during 2025 heal year performance review of the Ashanti Regional Directorate of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) in Kumasi last Friday, August 22, 2025.
It was on the theme: “Strengthening primary health care through the Networks of Practice towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC): The role of stakeholders”.
Systematic intervention
The Regional Health Director said proportional of deliveries attended by trained workers for 2023 half year was 59 per cent, 2024 recorded 52.5 per cent and 53.7 per cent for 2025 half-year under review, saying “the national target for this indicator is 65 per cent.”
He said the challenges have been assessed thoroughly and together with the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) supported by United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) a systematic intervention to address it decisively had been initiated.
He said the challenges were basically to do with uncoordinated referrals and lack of capacity at the peripheral level and said health care delivery at the community, sub-district and district levels can address more than 80 per cent needs of the population with the needed attention and support.
“Without a commensurate gatekeeper system and filters, well-resourced Community Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compounds and health centres, our quest for quality health coverage will be a mirage” he said.
New medical store
Dr Adomako stated that the regional medical store which was constructed in 1978 when the region’s population was roughly 1,375,000 but now more hospitals have been built with others under construction as well.
He stressed that the warehouse in the region can longer serve the purpose for which it was created, saying “we must construct and expand the current physical infrastructure”.
Collaboration
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO), KATH, Dr Paa kwesi Baidoo, said the facility would effectively collaborate with the regional health directorate to reduce maternal mortality rate in the region.
Already, he said KATH has started mentorship initiative where they would support the GHS with the needed expertise towards improving health care delivery in the region and added that the review was just about reviewing metrics, financial statements or compliance rate but rather a review of the collective promise to better the health of the people.
Zoning
The Chief of Nkwantakese, Nana Boakye Yam Ababio, who chaired the ceremony, advocated for the zoning of the region to allow specialists at KATH to offer speciliased care to patients in need of such services in health facilities across the region.
Such a move, he said would put an end to the late referral of such patients to KATH which often led to preventable deaths, stressing “if this materialises, it will easy access to quality medical care irrespective of one’s location”.
Writer’s email; gilbert.agbey@graphic.com.gh.
