The Eastern Regional Directorate of the Ghana Health Service has held its 2024 Annual Performance Review Meeting in Koforidua. The two-day meeting, held on 25th and 26th March 2025, was under the theme: “Improving Maternal Health Outcomes through System Strengthening and Accountability at All Levels of Health Care Delivery.”
The meeting aimed to assess progress made towards achieving annual targets and goals, discuss challenges faced by the Directorate, identify areas for improvement, and share successes and best practices.
It was also intended to develop strategic plans to address emerging health issues and evaluate the impact of interventions and programs on healthcare outcomes.
Eastern Regional Minister, Mrs. Rita Akosua Adjei Awatey, stated that maternal death is a concern for everyone, considering its devastating effect on immediate families, communities, and the nation as a whole. She emphasized that the health system and staff involved in maternal health care should be held responsible and accountable for maternal deaths. An audit, she said, should be conducted to identify gaps in the management of mothers from the antenatal period through to delivery and immediate post-delivery care.
According to Mrs. Awatey, once these gaps are identified, action plans should be developed and implemented to prevent their recurrence.
She assured participants that the government remains committed to improving health infrastructure, recruiting the necessary manpower, and providing logistics for efficient and quality health service delivery. She also reminded health practitioners to uphold a high level of professionalism in the discharge of their duties.
The Regional Director of Health, Dr. Winfred Ofosu, noted that overall performance over the past few years has shown continuous improvement. On average, the region performed better in 2024 with a score of 3.9 out of 5, compared to 3.6 in 2023.
He stated that for specific indicators, access to Outpatient Department (OPD) services increased from 1.30 per capita to 1.43 per capita, while the incidence of both hypertension and diabetes slightly increased in 2024. Childhood immunization coverage declined from 109.7 percent in 2023 to 95.8 percent in 2024.
Additionally, Dr. Ofosu reported that institutional all-cause mortality increased from 24.7 percent in 2023 to 27.9 percent in 2024, while the maternal mortality ratio increased from 112 in 2023 to 192 per 100,000 live births in 2024.
Tuberculosis case notification improved from 51.1 percent in 2023 to 83.0 percent in 2024, and tracer medicine availability at the Regional Medical Stores rose from 81 percent to 83.3 percent.
Dr. Ofosu concluded that despite disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the overall performance trend since 2020 has shown positive improvement.
Source:Mybrytfmonline.com
