The Cape Coast Teaching Hospital has intensified the training of staff on the management of complications on hypertensive disorders and postpartum haemorrhage among pregnant women.

The hospital says it would also continue to work with the Ghana Health service and facilities that refer cases to the hospital to improve maternal health service delivery as it battles to reduce maternal deaths to the barest minimum.

Chief Executive Officer of the hospital, Dr. Eric Kofi Ngyedu intimated data available to the hospital on maternal death in 2020 was worrying, even though it was a marginal improvement recorded over the past year.

Speaking at a ceremony where the MTN Ghana Foundation handed over a fully furnished ultramodern blood Bank facility to the hospital, Dr. Ngyedu indicated that the facility would enhance maternal health services, most especially curbing or possibly ending post-partum hemorrhage which had taken lives at the hospital.

He explained the hospital recorded 26 maternal deaths in 2020 at a ratio of 903 to 100,000 live births compared to 28 reported in the previous year, with a corresponding ratio of 925 to 100,00 live births.

Even though there was an improvement, he indicates the hospital was worried about the numbers and would work to reduce the numbers.

He stated, “It was in this light that the Hospital Board in 2019, tasked management to implement recommendations made by the Technical and Planning Committee to renovate and revamp the hospital’s blood bank to improve the availability of blood and blood-related products. Management sought support from MTN Foundation, that request gave birth to this beautiful edifice we are commissioning today.”

The Cape Coast Teaching Hospital CEO also revealed the hospital used its collaborative partnership as a vehicle to secure expansion of the pharmacy storage facility from benevolent organizations and the construction of the facility has been completed and handed over to the hospital.

Dr. Ngyedu assured the MTN Ghana foundation, the hospital would take good care of the facility so generations would benefit from it.

Chief Corporate Services Executive of MTN Ghana, Samuel Korankye was convinced, the investment symbolizes the company’s unalloyed commitment towards improving the lives of Ghanaians. He says the project was birthed following a request from the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital.

The Foundation, he explains, has been instrumental in blood donation campaigns in the country and the construction of the facility would serve a good monument of the company’s contribution to the collection and storage of blood in Ghana.

Mr. Korankye emphasized that the company finds it rewarding to give back to communities through such interventions, adding that funding for over $15 million worth of projects across Ghana wouldn’t have been possible without the patronage of their services by Ghanaians.

Data from the National Blood Service on blood donation from 2016 – 2019 reveals the percentage of voluntary donations in Ghana is around 35 %. In the current situation, the Ghana Health Service (GHS) is woefully inadequate to respond to emergencies.
The ultra-modern blood bank costs an amount of GH 300, 000 and has the following features: a reception area, an office, blood donor lounge and corridor, bleeding room, laboratory, fridge room, storeroom, a washroom and locally fabricated couches.