The Greater Accra Regional Health Directorate (GRHD) is struggling to meet the global maternal health ratio of less than 70 deaths per 100,000 live births due to low-skilled delivery.

Data from the directorate shows that in 2024, health facilities in the Greater Accra Region recorded 163 maternal deaths, a slight reduction from 170 maternal deaths in 2023.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends that countries meet the 70 deaths per 100,000 live births target by 2030, as part of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 3.1.

Dr Akosua Agyeiwaa Owusu-Sarpong, Greater Accra Regional Director of Health, said in Accra on Thursday that the high maternal mortality ratio of 167/100,000 live births in the Region was partly due to the directorate’s inability to completely capture skilled delivery data from all public health facilities and over 600 private health facilities in the region.

She was speaking at the Greater Accra Regional Health Directorates Annual Performance Review meeting for 2024 on the theme “Improving Performance and Health Outcomes through Service Delivery, Partnerships and Excellence in Health Service Delivery.”

Dr Owusu-Sarpong said on-going safe motherhood and life-saving skills trainings, quarterly zonal meetings with supervision by obstetricians, gynaecologists and paediatricians would further support in the reduction of maternal and perinatal mortalities and must be sustained.

The review meeting allowed senior managers, programme managers, unit heads, metro and municipal directors of health and medical directors of health facilities in the Greater Accra Region to assess their performance in 2024.

For two days, the health workers will assess their progress, acknowledge their collective successes, identify performance gaps, and together map out strategies for improved performance in the years ahead.

Dr Owusu-Sarpong said in 2025, the Greater Accra Regional Health Directorate would focus on leveraging on Partnerships, strengthen governance systems, and improve service quality and safety.

She said while equity in staff distribution was still a challenge in some areas, the GRHD was able to get a lot of staff posted to the Ada East and the Ada West Districts, and some other areas within the region where staff had often refused to accept posting.

“The Region’s aggregate scores for the holistic assessment for 2024 was 4.07 compared to 3.93 in 2023, making the Region a highly performing Region,” she said

She said the region had worked very hard to bring the cholera situation under effective control with the support of more resilient, trusted surveillance and epidemic management systems.

Dr Caroline Reindorf Amissah, Deputy Director-General of the GHS, said with challenges such as dwindling funds, rising disease burden and workforce migration and infrastructure deterioration, health workers must focus on strengthening service commitment.

Madam Linda Ocloo, Greater Regional Minister, in a speech read on her behalf, asked health professionals to remain steadfast in improving healthcare delivery.

The Regional Minister encouraged health workers to promote transparency, accountability, and excellence in the health facilities, stating that, “Strengthening reporting mechanisms, particularly in the private health sector, will ensure more accurate data capture and informed decision-making.”

Maternal mortality refers to deaths due to complications from pregnancy or childbirth

The leading causes of maternal mortality include severe bleeding (postpartum haemorrhage), infections (including sepsis), high blood pressure disorders during pregnancy (pre-eclampsia and eclampsia), complications from delivery and unsafe abortions.