Maternal deaths reduce in Upper East

Maternal deaths reduced from 43 in 2021 to 27 in 2022 in the Upper East Region, the Regional Director of Health Services, Dr Emmanuel Kofi Dzotsi, has said.

“This represents an institutional maternal mortality ratio of 65 per 100,000 live births as against 98 per 100,000 live births in 2021, representing 91.7 per cent performance improvement over the 2021 performance” he stressed.

Annual review

Dr Dzotsi, who was speaking during an annual performance review meeting, said the unfortunate deaths were duly audited and the lessons learnt and recommendations implemented by the health professionals, community members and key stakeholders to prevent future occurrence.

The review meeting was held on the theme:

“The role of quality data in improving health delivery outcomes”.

He noted that the region recorded a reduction in institutional stillbirth rate from 14 per cent in 2021 to 11 per cent in 2022, which was below the national target of 11.5 per cent.

Human resource

He said though human resources remained a major issue throughout the year under review, the directorate managed to attract some critical health workers into the region to augment the existing staff.

“We attracted six additional doctors to the region increasing the number of medical officers in the region from 53 in 2021 to 59 in 2022,” he said, stressing “the doctor to population ratio decreased from 1:24,097 in 2021 to 1:22,518 in 2022,” he said.

“It is worth noting that we attracted a Physician Specialist who is working hard to ensure the establishment of a dialysis centre at the regional hospital to cater for patients with kidney-related conditions,” the regional director said.

Touching on challenges, he said some childhood immunisation services suffered a decline, particularly Penta three coverage was not good with a record of 87.4 per cent in 2022 as compared to 92 per cent in 2021.

He stated that Measles-Rubella two coverage was 74.7 per cent as against a target of 95 per cent, which was due to the shortage of routine vaccines in the second half of 2022, the Bawku conflict, documentation challenges and inadequate motorbike for outreach services.

He called on stakeholders, health partners, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and others to come on board to support in overcoming the challenges facing health delivery in the region and improve the health conditions of the people.

He acknowledged the provision of 50 tricycle ambulances by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to enhance neonatal and maternal health services in the region.

Writer’s email:gilbert.agbey@graphic.com.gh.