Health Minister, Alban Bagbin has stressed the need for bold steps to be taken in ensuring that policies on health are implemented. as well as ensuring that the appropriate investments in the sector are made.Speaking at the opening of an ultra-modern maternity theatre jointly funded by the Ridge Hospital and its donor partners, Mr. Bagbin stressed the need for the appropriate investments in the health sector to be made.He indicated the lack of access to essential obstetric services, unsafe abortions and the low uptake of family planning as some of the problems still affecting the fight against maternal mortality adding that although Ghana has made gains in infant and child survival, many women still die every year of pregnancy related complications.Maternal mortality in Ghana is said to still be on the high as 451 women out of every 100,000 women who give birth lose their lives during the process. This figure contrasts sharply with that of the United States of America where maternal mortality is estimated to be 9 out of every 100,000 births.In a bid to reduce the spate of maternal mortality in the country, the Ridge Hospital in Accra collaborated with some donor agencies to build a state of the art maternity theatre to help reduce maternal and new born deaths in the country.According to the Head of Clinical Services at the Ridge Hospital, Dr. Emmanuel Srofenyoh, the obstetric and gynecological department of the Ridge Hospital faces enormous challenges such as the lack of facilities and equipment, a development he noted defeats attempts to protect the lives of pregnant women.He expressed the hope that the new well equipped operating theatre dedicated to obstetric and gynecological emergencies will help decongest the Hospital’s overcrowded Maternity Unit to ensure that the provide better quality medical care as well as save the lives of more mothers and their children.The Medical Director at the Ridge hospital, Dr. Obeng Apori also noted that the new maternity theatre will help the Ridge hospital share the vision of drastically reducing maternal mortality.He was optimistic the hospital will soon become “a place where mothers can walk to with the full confidence and firm assurance that they shall come out alive with their children without residual morbidity”.The theatre project was funded by the Ghana International Women Club (GIWC), an organization that annually identifies worthy causes to support, at an amount of over 100,000 dollars. Some 350,000 from the USAID was also used to procure the necessary medical equipment for obstetric emergency care in the refurbished operating room.Kybele, a US based organization working to improve child birth safety worldwide also contributed a substantial share of time by providing medical professional on a volunteer basis. Their volunteer program has since being inaugurated in Accra by the first lady, Naadu Mills.