The Central Regional Health directorate says it is directing all its energies and resources to tackle issues of maternal deaths in the region.

The region lost 75 mothers to child birth in 2020 giving the region an institutional maternal mortality rate of 109 deaths to 100,000 live births.

Speaking at the Regional Health Performance Review, Regional Director of Health, Dr. Akosua Sarpong indicated steps have been taken to track and audit all maternal deaths occurring at a record time in the region.

During the holistic assessment of the Central Region, the region’s score was 3.6 which indicated it was a moderately performing region.

Regional Health Director, Dr. Akosua Sarpong, reveals a cursory look at the holistic assessment score shows the region saw a decline in performance in family planning indicators.

She says, their set objectives are to evaluate and map out new performance strategies that would propel the region into a high performing one in the country.

On maternal deaths, Dr. Sarpong indicates, there is a plan in place to set the region on course to achieve the SDG targets.

"Another aspect of our performance and service delivery which we need to collectively focus our attention and tackle with all the resources at our disposal is the issue of maternal deaths in our region.

"In 2020, the region lost 75 mothers to childbirths giving us an institutional maternal mortality rate of 109 deaths to 100,000 live births,” she stated.

Dr. Akosua Sarpong stressed even though the region’s ratio compared favourably with the national ratio, the region was still far from reaching the SDG targets of 70 deaths per 100,000 live births.

“The critical issues that bother our minds here are why our mothers are dying,” she asked.

She reports since January 2020, their objective has been to refocus their maternal health strategies, putting in place zonal teams with obstetrician-gynecologist specialists in each of the zones to monitor, supervise and train service providers on maternal issues.

“We are taking steps to audit all debts occurring within the zones on record time,” she added.

 Since the onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic, the region has recorded over 3000 cases with active cases currently around 300. Dr. Akosua asked health professionals to take good care of themselves if the nation could contain the virus.

Meanwhile, Former Dean of the School of Medical Sciences at the University of Cape Coast, Prof. Harold Amoono Koufie called for the promotion and financing of medical research in the country.

He commended the Western North Regional team for a fantastic presentation on the regional assessment report for the Central Region.

He asked that the content of the report and recommendations should be studied carefully to improve health delivery outcomes.