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Maternal mortality at the Upper West Regional Hospital has declined significantly with only two cases recorded in 2022 as against nine in 2021.
Neonatal deaths reduced from 57 per/100,000 live births in 2021 to 46.6 per 100,000 live births in 2022.
Still birth also reduced from 40.8 in 2021 to 38.3 in 2022.
The Medical Director of the Hospital, Dr Robert Amesiya, made this known at Wa during the 2022 performance review of the hospital on Friday.
Speaking on the theme “Increasing access to quality healthcare, the role of stakeholders”, the director said the review sought to discuss innovations towards strengthening health service delivery in the region, and share best practices as well as receive feedback on the review of existing policies and the creation of new ones to ensure high performance in the future.
He mentioned that the reduction was partly due to increased education for women to report to hospitals on time, and attend their ante-natal appointments without fail.
Dr Amesiya enumerated the factors that accounted for maternal deaths as delay in seeking medical care, refusal to visit the hospital or clinic frequently and delay or refusal to undergo surgery.
He said the maternal deaths were referral cases which came in late and regretted that the inadequate district hospitals to serve as referral facilities, contributed to maternal death rates in the region.
He advised pregnant women to adopt the habit of going to antenatal regularly and adhere to the visiting protocol to enable personnel to detect complications early for the safety of all.
Dr Amesiya outlined some of the operational challenges in the hospital as high cost of operation and maintenance, erratic flow of funds and delay in the reimbursement by NHIA, poor referral system, inadequate utility vehicle for service organisation, inadequate accommodation for critical staff and threat of land encroachment.
For his part, Regional Director of Health Service, Dr Damien Punguyire, commended the hospital staff for their efforts in reducing maternal deaths and urged them to work harder to bring the figure to zero, by tackling “the gaps and barriers fuelling maternal deaths in the region.”
The regional director also stressed on the need for nurses to pursue specialist programmes to upgrade their knowledge, and improve on the quality of service delivery in the region.
He urged traditional and community leaders in the municipality to support health workers in their areas to deliver effective healthcare services for the development and transformation of the region
FROM RAFIA ABDUL RAZAK, WA
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