Update curriculum to address maternal health issues
Health training institutions in the country have been urged to continuously seek knowledge on emerging national and international health issues and regularly update their curriculum to address those issues.
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Furthermore, they have been advised to be abreast of all policies from the Ministry of Health (MoH) and get involved in service provision at all levels.
Dr Linda A. Vanotoo, the Greater Accra Regional Director of Health, gave the advice at the annual general meeting of the Conference of Heads of Health Training Institutions (COHHETI) in Takoradi.
In a presentation titled, “Achieving MDG 4 & 5: The role of health training institutions”, Dr Vanotoo urged tutors in health training institutions to develop knowledge and interest in maternal and child health.
She said as the institutions established to train human resource for healthcare delivery, health training institutions were expected to develop people with the right attitude for the health sector.
Dr Vanotoo pointed out that Ghana’s challenge was to reduce maternal deaths from the current 350 per 100,000 live births to the MDG target of 185 per 100,000 live births by 2015.
“Maternal and newborn deaths are still unacceptably high and the causes of maternal deaths have remained relatively the same over decades,” she said.
She emphasised that the causes of maternal deaths, mainly bleeding, hypertension in pregnancy, infections and unsafe abortions, had not changed in past 20 years, despite the many interventions that had been introduced in the country.
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Dr Vanotoo noted that the training institutions had a big role to play for the health workers they turned out to do things differently to achieve positive results.
“We have the opportunity to save lives every day: the interventions are simple and well known,” she stated.
She indicated that when providing services, healthcare providers must note that the patient’s assessment of nonconformity was immediate, hence one instance of poor service could negate many instances of acceptable service or even exemplary service.