Significant stride has been chalked up in health delivery in Upper East Region in the areas of pregnancy and delivery. Antaean care coverage stood at 30 percent; skill delivery increased from 33.5 percent in 2017 to 34.5 percent in 2018 with a total live birth of 16.080.
Ninety-eight point five percent of these newborns were exclusively breastfeeding at the time of discharge.
Postnatal care coverage was 31.4 percent, family planning acceptance rate of was 16.2 percent over the period.
A total of 18 maternal deaths with maternal mortality ratio of 110 per 100.000 live births were recorded, a marginal reduction compared to the same period in 2017.
This was disclosed by the Regional Director of the Ghana Health Service Dr. Winfred Ofosu at a mid-year health sector performance review conference at the Ghana Health Service In-Service Training Center in Bolgatanga.
The conference was under the theme “Achieving Sustainable Development Goals targets for maternal and child health – the role of technology”.
Speaking to Radio Ghana, Dr. Ofosu said the theme is based on the Director General’s vision and focus on how to leverage the use of information and communication technology to improve maternal and newborn care in the region to save life and avert disability.
Dr. Ofosu indicated that there are a number of technological facilities such as teleconsultation center,
Geographic Information Systems, mobile phone calls and whatsapp platforms that are used in problem analysis and fast communication to get help and save lives.
He state that, with support from development partners, such as KOICA, the World Bank JIKA
and USAID/MCSP/Jhpiego,
GHS continue strengthening the Community based Health Planning and Services system CHPS in the regions which is a vehicle for primary health care to enable the attainment of the Universal Health Coverage at the community level.
He added that, a transactional data collection tool e-tracker was deployed recently at the CHPS in the Sub districts to facilitate data collection and utilization with Samsung Electronics and Good Neighbors Ghana, Evaluate for Health Ghana and Ghana Health Service.
Dr. Ofosu explained some of the challenges the health service in the region is faced with as the Doctor Population ratio in the region as one Doctor is to 30,000 and attributed it partly to lack of accommodation for doctors and other physician assistant, transport and slow rate of reimbursement of National Health Insurance scheme claims NHIS.
Story by: GBC’s Emmanuel Akayeti
