Eastern Regional Coalition of NGOs in Health holds forum

The Eastern Regional branch of the Ghana Coalition of Non-Governmental Organisations in Health (GCNH) on Thursday held its fourth annual health forum in Koforidua.

It was under the theme: “Ensuring Zero Maternal Death in the Region; The Role of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs)".

Dr G.Y. Bonsu, Deputy Director of Public Health, charged the CSOs to work with the districts to identify the bottlenecks in effective maternal health delivery.

He indicated that maternal death should not be reduced to numbers adding “one maternal death is 100 percent for the child, children, family and the community”.

Dr Bonsu said most of the death could be avoided and urged the participants to team up to ensure that no woman died during delivery.

He said in 2010 the region recorded 115 maternal deaths, while 135 deaths were recorded in 2011 with 2012 recording 116 deaths.

Dr Bonsu attributed causes of maternal deaths to bleeding, hypertension and unsafe abortion.

“Delay at home, delay in accessing the health care and delay in receiving care at the health facility contribute to maternal deaths”.

Mr James Mensah Boamah, Chairman, Eastern Regional Coalition of NGO’s, said the forum aimed at contributing to bridging the equity gaps in accessing quality maternal care to improve the current situation in the area.

He said good maternal health and nutrition were important contributors to child survival adding that the lack of essential interventions to address these and other health conditions often contributed to incidence of neonatal morbidity and mortality.

“Although substantial progress has been made towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 4 and 5, the rate of decline in maternal, newborn and under-five mortality remain insufficient to achieve these goals by 2015”.

Mr Boamah said there was the need for effective interventions and strategies for improving reproductive, maternal and newborn survival and child health which were closely related and must be provided through a continuum of care approach.

“If these are linked together and included as integrated programmes; these interventions can lower costs, promote greater efficiencies and reduce duplication of resources”.

He said the GCNH was ready to contribute to the implementation of the MDG Accelerated Framework of the Ghana Health Service and called for partnership and collaboration.