The Upper Regional Health Director Dr Emmanuel Kofi Dzotsi has revealed that maternal deaths have seen an upward surge over the last two years. A trend he describes as worrying and a threat to the human resource in the region,
Speaking at the 2021 Annual Performance Review meeting held at Bolgatanga, the Upper East Regional capital, Dr. Dzotsi Noted that the region had made remarkable progress in the delivery of health services. The region saw a performance increase from 3.2% (a moderate performing region) in 2020 to 4.0% in 2021 ( a high performing region).
The progress notwithstanding, maternal mortality has seen recent increases.
He stated, “maternal mortality has witnessed an upward trend over the past two years, in 2019, the region recorded 31 maternal deaths (representing 80.8/100,000 live births), the number slightly increased in 2020 to 36 (representing 91.8/100,000 live births), and further increased to 43 deaths in 2021 (representing 98/100,000 per live births)”.
He added that, even though maternal deaths are surging in the region, he is happy that, research has proven that almost all maternal deaths can be prevented. In lieu of this, Dr. Dzotsi called for concerted efforts to help eradicate this menace.
Dr. Dzotsi highlighted the intensified use of a monitoring template to help track and ensure that all maternal death audit recommendations are implemented. The Regional Director of Health Services mentioned that the Health Directorate had implemented the community mapping which seeks to follow up on pregnant women through effecting home visiting and monitoring.
The capacities of Doctors, midwives and community health nurses have also been built to shore up their expertise on safe motherhood.
Dr. Dzotsi also mentioned that the various facilities had taken to ensure proper and quick referral services amongst others as the strategies to eradicate maternal related deaths in the region.
He, therefore, appealed to stakeholders for support to help implement the highlighted strategies to help stop the worrying trend in the region.
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