Maternal mortality in the Brong Ahafo region reduced from 109 cases in 2012 to 92 cases in 2013.
According to the Regional Director of Health Services, Dr Letsa ,though the decrease looked insignificant, with the implementation of the Millennium Development Goal (MDG 5) Accelerated Framework the region would be able to improve on and sustain the gains in maternal mortality reduction.
He was addressing the opening session of the 2013 Annual Performance Review of the Regional Directorate of the Ghana Health Services, in Sunyani.
The three-day meeting is on the theme: “Accountability for Improvement in Health Outcomes” and being attended by all the municipal and district directorates of health in the region.
He explained that the region continued to perform creditably in disease control and surveillance activities as it witnessed dramatic improvement in all disease surveillance.
Dr Letsa said case detection for measles and yellow fever increased significantly and, for the first time in the history of the region, no district was silent for any of the surveillance indicators.
“The Tuberculosis Control Programme continues to make strides in the region as it saw a significant increase in case detection and also initiated the management of TB cases in Sunyani Prisons,” he said.
Dr. letsa said the directorate was seriously preparing for the certification of the country as Guinea-worm free.
To this end, he said surveillance activities and awareness creation campaign were on-going but was, however, worried that the momentum was slow.
Dr. Letsa emphasised the need to increase and strengthen Guinea worm reporting and investigating awareness creation as well as information on the cash reward so as to achieve certification by the end of 2014.
Mr. Justice Samuel Adjei, Deputy Brong-Ahafo Regional Minister, said Ghana had reached a stage where the quality of health care delivery could not be compromised.
He said Government was fully conscious of the fact that a healthy workforce was a productive labour force in nation building and that was why it continued to allocate huge resources to support the health sector towards the implementation of quality health delivery.
Mr. Adjei said the realignment of the CHPS zones to the electoral areas had successfully been done with an increase of 25 in the number of functional CHPS in the region.
He appealed to district and municipal chief executives to take personal interest in the organisation and implementation of CHPS in their electoral areas and urged them to also support the selection and training of community health teams and demand accountability from the community health officers.
Mr. Adjei noted with gladness that work on the five polyclinics at Wamfie Bomaa, Kwatire and Nkrankwanta would soon be completed to provide quality health care at the peripheries.
Under the campaign for the Accelerated Reduction in Maternal Mortality in Africa project, the municipals and district assemblies in the region had established four residential accommodation facilities for health personnel, five health centers and 49 CHPS compounds, whilst 28 health centers, CHPS compounds and residential accommodation facilities are at various stages of completion.
The Deputy Regional Minister added that a gynaecological theatre had been constructed at Wenchi Government Hospital while 136 persons had been sponsored by the various assemblies to pursue courses with relevance to maternal mortality reduction.
Source: GNA