The Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi is to intensify efforts to tackle maternal and neonatal mortality, which has been unacceptably high at the facility.
Skills improvement programme would be developed in 27 peripheral health institutions in its surrounding areas in the Ashanti, Brong- Ahafo, Western and Central regions, identified to account for the bulk of referrals in obstetrics and neonatal cases.
It will also, through lobbying and advocacy, source funds for the completion of the stalled 95-bed capacity maternity block project started almost 40 years ago to ease congestion and create space for the optimal management of such cases towards the attainment of the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of 187 per every 100,000 births.
Chief Executive Officer of the hospital, Professor Ohene Adjei, said the referral facility had been taking care of cases in seven regions in the country as well as some neighbouring countries and that reducing maternal mortality, which now stood at over 800 per 100,000 live births, had become a huge challenge.
It would, however, not spare any effort to win the battle this year, he declared, when he interacted with senior editors of the media in Kumasi on Wednesday.
He said the current rate which was way up the national average of 360 per 100,000 live births was attributable to a myriad of factors - delays in referrals from peripheral health institutions already grappling with inadequate facilities and skills for the management of such cases.
There were also the added difficulty with adequate space and skilled delivery services and management of newborns, absence of intensive care unit (ICU) at the maternity area and lack of some critical equipment.
Prof. Ohene Adjei said two consultant specialists had already been attached to the 27 medical facilities and that communication had also been improved with the procurement of desktop phones to aid free telephone discussions on the management of emergency cases.
To solve the problem of traffic congestion on the hospital�s roads, he said, KATH was piloting a sticker and colour coding system to allow for free ambulance and vehicular movement.
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