Doctor calls for more efforts at community level

Dr Ebenezer Appiah-Denkyirah, the Director-General Ghana Health Service (GHS), has called for collaboration with stakeholders at the community levels to achieve the purpose of the Community Based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) centres.

He said the CHPS concept was a strategy to eliminate maternal and neonatal deaths to the barest minimum, so collaborating with community and opinion leaders as well as traditional authorities who were key stakeholders was imperative.

Dr Ebenezer Appiah-Denkyirah said figures recorded in maternal and neonatal deaths were unacceptable and therefore health management teams from the zonal to the national level must scale up strategies to make the CHPS centres functional.

He said last year over 1,000 mothers lost their lives in the process of giving birth, an indication that the CHPS centres were not meeting targeted purpose and advised CHPS centres staff to make visitation of pregnant women and transport arrangement to health centres their core duties.

The Director-General announced that government had procured 68 million dollars to support GHS build more CHPS centres especially in the hard to reach areas.

Dr Charity Sarpong, the Regional Director of Health, said even though maternal, neonatal and child health statistics for 2014 recorded marginal decreases, it was still not encouraging.

Total deliveries increased from 68,760 in 2013 to 75,135 in 2014, maternal deaths reduced from 123 in 2013 to 109 in 2014, fresh still births reduced from 55.2 % to 0.5%, macerated still birth also reduced from 1.1% to 0.9% whiles family planning acceptance rate reduced from 28.30% to 27.5% in the year under review.

Dr Sarpong said stringent efforts were being put in place to address the challenges in maternal and child health and mentioned efforts such as addressing negative staff attitudes at the health centres, reviving zonal maternal mortality conferences which brings on board all health providers and strong supervision.

She expressed the hope that with concerted effort and high professional standards, the region could achieve all its targets and ensure that maternal and neonatal deaths were reduced according to the MDGs 4&5.