Health authorities in the Ashanti Region have launched a comprehensive clinical mentorship program in a decisive move to address the high rates of maternal and perinatal mortality in the region.

The data-driven strategy is to improve healthcare delivery for mothers and newborns in the region.
Regional Health Director Dr Fred Adomako-Boateng tells journalists the new clinical mentorship programme will address health issues related to non-communicable diseases, supply chain inefficiencies, and leadership and governance gaps related to maternal mortality.

The Ashanti region saw its institutional maternal mortality ratio rise from 166 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2024 to 179 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2025, representing a 4.1 percent increase from the previous year’s figures.

This is against a national target of 120 deaths per 100,000 live births. The Regional Health Directorate, with the support of UNICEF, the Ghana College of Surgeons and Physicians, Society of Obstetrics and Gynaecologists, Pediatric Society of Ghana, CHAG, among others, has conducted a deep-dive analysis into these fatalities, as findings revealed a significant number of referrals came from neighboring regions such as Bono East, Western North, and Central.

“If you look at the maternal mortality ratio, especially what we term as the institutional maternal mortality ratio, the country we are looking at has 120 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births.

In the Ashanti region, the year under review, we had 175 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. The question is behind these figures; there are reasons, and there are people. The question is, what are the causes of that? At this point, I want to thank UNICEF,” he said.

“UNICEF has helped the Ashanti region enormously to really look at all these deaths. And what we have seen is that when we look at this figure that we talk about, the case is not only for the Ashanti region, it's for Ghana. So you have these maternal mortality ratios coming from at least three regions.

So I can tell you some of these referrals are coming from Brong East, some of these referrals are coming from Western North, some of these referrals are coming from the Central region, and they end up here. So that's the first thing that we have seen,” says Ashanti Regional Health Director, Dr. Fred Adomako-Boateng.

Further investigations also revealed deaths were recorded across private facilities, Ghana Health Service facilities, Christian Health Association (CHAG), and other faith-based institutions.

Ashanti Regional Health Director, Dr. Fred Adomako-Boateng, says the Clinical Mentorship Program is the way to go in addressing the current challenge rather than a reactive firefighting approach.

“Once this is not a knee-jerk reaction and firefighting, and we support the service in this way, we believe that maternal mortality, perinatal mortality, and other things are not going to be less than this year. For the next two, three, four, five years, a system will be built, and it will be layered on, and we can continue to advance this.”

Dr. Adomako-Boateng spoke to journalists at the sidelines of the Health Sector Review Meeting in Kumasi.

“It means that you cannot sit alone in the Ashanti region and prescribe a solution. The surest intervention and looking at the literature, is what we call the clinical mentorship programme. And the clinical mentorship programme is looking at why they are referring.

And if why they are referring can be addressed at that level, why don't you do it? So that instead of them coming to other secondary referral, why don't you send people to go and build their capacity there? “

He noted the key features and expected outcomes of the mentorship program include a strategic framework developed in collaboration with the Ministry of Health’s Policy, Planning, Monitoring, and Evaluation (PPME) division.

“The strategy has been validated by these societies and groups that we are talking about. Not only that, but we have also done implementation guidelines for this. We have even developed a curriculum that would train mentors, clinical mentors, to go and do mentorship.

"When they move from there, you'll be able to know that you can measure the capacity, the skill, and the right attitude that they've been able to embed in these nurses and doctors”.

Meanwhile, the clinical mentorship program will also take a critical look at improving ambulance services, blood availability, and logistics in the healthcare space.