Maternal mortality in the Sissala East District of the Upper West Region has reduced from three in 2008 to two last year. The reduction is attributed to improvement in supervised delivery services which also went from one thousand four hundred and one in 2008 to one thousand 727.
The District Director of Health, Joseph Bolibie, announced this at the 2009 Annual Performance Review of the District Health Directorate at Tumu. Mr. Bolibie said pregnant women in the district have been registered to ensure proper monitoring to prevent deaths. He entreated health workers to educate pregnant women on emergency preparedness as well as encourage them to visit the health facilities at least four times before delivery.
Mr. Bolibie said the directorate faces a lot of challenges such as inadequate human resource, accommodation and equipment. He therefore appealed to the government and development partners to assist the district. The Regional Director of Health Services, Dr. Alexis Nang-Beifubah, said though maternal mortality has decreased in Sissala East District last year, the same cannot be said of the whole region.
He implored the District Health Directorate to device new strategies to further reduce the mortality rate. The Medical Director of the Tumu Hospital, Dr. Abdulai Abukari, said inadequate structures and acute shortage of technical staff at the hospital hamper quality health care delivery. He said the absence of a fence wall also poses a serious threat to both patients and workers, and appealed to the government to provide one for the hospital.
