Rise in pregnancy anaemia worrying — Municipal Health Directorate

A total number of 911 pregnant women at 36 weeks were recorded with anaemia within the Ledzokuku municipality in 2022.

That, the Ledzokuku Municipal Health Directorate, said was worrying because although cases of anaemia had reduced from 883 in 2020 to 862 in 2021, an increase of 911 was recorded in 2022. 

The Director for the Ledzokuku Municipal Health Directorate, Jacqueline Sfarijlani, noted that the 2022 figure represented pregnant women whose haemoglobin (HB) were below 11, a level which she described as a risk factor since one of the causes of maternal mortality was haemorrhage.

“Bleeding during the delivery process is one of the causes of maternal mortality, so if the haemoglobin is low and we don’t tackle it and the woman goes into labour, we may lose her,” she said.

Ms Sfarijlan, therefore, indicated that the directorate would this year set up an anaemia team that would critically look at the different interventions that could be put in place to reduce anaemia at 36 weeks in pregnant women.

Review meeting

Ms Sfarijlan was speaking when the Ledzokuku Municipal Health Directorate organised its 2022 Annual Performance Review meeting in Accra last Tuesday.

The meeting was aimed at providing a platform for healthcare managers and providers to take stock of services delivered to residents of the Ledzokuku municipality in the year under review.

It was also to assess the achievements, shortfalls and challenges of the healthcare institutions while exploring ways to improve their services to ensure better healthcare outcomes.

It was on the theme, "Addressing healthcare delivery gaps for equity in health coverage through intensifying health promotion interventions, optimising the use of data and technology to improve access to quality healthcare and strengthening preventive and control measures for emergent and re-emergent public health events".

At the meeting, presentations were delivered by seven healthcare institutions within the Ledzokuku municipality on their activities on expanded programmes on immunisation, infectious diseases, non-communicable diseases, family planning, COVID-19, adolescent care services, mental health issues, maternal and child care, and mortality rate for a aspecific delivery.

The health institutions were Manna Mission Hospital, Family Health Hospital, Teshie Community Clinic, Kpeshie Medical Centre, Kpeshie Maternity Home, Treasure Life Medical Centre and LEKMA Hospital.

Find solutions

Ms Sfarijlani explained that the Annual Performance Review was significant as it helped to shape policy objectives of health institutions for the coming years and improve performance quality of healthcare delivery and coverage.

The Municipal Health director thanked their partners and sponsors for their support in delivering healthcare services and further called for the strengthening of such collaborations.

The Municipal Director for Health Services for the Ga South, Dr Efua Asante, also entreated healthcare practitioners to find innovative ways of delivering healthcare to their clients to help close the gaps in access to health coverage.

“For every challenge we identify, we must in our small way, identify the root cause of the challenges and how to solve the problem, as well as achieve better outcomes in 2023,” she said.

The Member of Parliament (MP) for Ledzokuku Constituency, Benjamin Narteh Ayiku, in a speech read on his behalf gave an assurance that he would construct more health facilities to ensure health services were easily accessible in the municipality.