CHPS centres improve health care in Kwahu Afram Plains
The Community Health and Planning Services (CHPS) compounds introduced by the Ghana Health Service (GHS) are playing significant roles in antenatal care in the Kwahu Afram Plains North and South districts in the Eastern Region.
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The availability of CHPS centres within the various communities enables pregnant women to seek the needed services without travelling to the hospital for antenatal care.
A check at the Donkorkrom Presbyterian Hospital indicates that in 2014, 26 per cent of the total hospital visitation was in respect of antenatal care, but that dropped to 20 per cent in 2015.
Evacuation cases
The General Manager of the hospital, Mr Kweku Fianko Gyan, who made the disclosure to the Daily Graphic in at Donkorkrom, however, expressed concern about the rise in cases of evacuation of the uterus brought before the hospital.
He said in 2014, the hospital recorded 56 of such cases but the figure went up to 73 in 2015, representing a 30 per cent increase.
“The worrying aspect of it is that patients start the process at home and finally finish at the hospital. Sometimes they get to the hospital at a very critical stage and we have no option but to complete the evacuation,” he said.
He, therefore, advocated intensive public health education to achieve zero maternal deaths in the area.
Maternal & neonatal mortality
On maternal deaths, Mr Gyan said the facility recorded 50 per cent reduction from two in the first half of 2014 to one in the first half of 2015, saying the hospital was working at attaining zero maternal deaths.
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Referring to neonatal deaths, he said the facility recorded eight in 2014 but the figure reduced to five in 2015, representing a 38 per cent reduction.
Inadequate professionals
Mr Gyan said the hospital was committed to quality health care delivery but was sometimes handicapped with the number of personnel, citing for instance that the hospital could only boast six midwives, a figure he described as woefully inadequate.
He said many professionals declined posting to the hospital because of its location, as many of the health professionals posted to the hospital saw it as a punishment.
Mr Gyan explained that the hospital ran three shifts and ordinarily, at every time, there should be at least two or three midwives, with the health assistants and community health nurses lending a hand.
He said, for now, the figures meant that none of them should be on leave and should not be sick because in such a situation, it was most likely the team on a particular shift might not have a midwife at all.
Mr Gyan said currently, most of the work that was supposed to be done by a midwife was being carried out by the health assistants and community health nurses.