Deputy Health Minister urges practical interventions to tackle maternal mortality

Deputy Minister of Health, Prof. Dr. Grace Ayensu-Danquah, has called for a more focused and practical approach to addressing Ghana’s healthcare challenges, particularly maternal and newborn deaths.

She said rather than attempting to solve every challenge in the health sector at once, stakeholders must identify critical problems that can be addressed with available resources and implement targeted interventions that produce measurable results.

Prof. Dr. Ayensu-Danquah made the call at the USG/Integrated Health Partnership workshop held in Accra on Tuesday under the theme “Building Healthier Futures for Families.”

The US government-funded initiative, implemented through the Integrated Health Partnership with Project HOPE, is aimed at improving maternal, newborn and child health services by ensuring that women receive skilled care before, during and after childbirth.

It also seeks to strengthen health facilities and equip frontline healthcare workers with the skills, tools and commodities required to provide quality care.

Prof. Dr. Ayensu-Danquah said Ghana could achieve significant reductions in preventable deaths by concentrating resources on interventions at the primary healthcare level, where many health conditions could be detected and managed before becoming emergencies.

“We should narrow it down and do the best we can under our small thing.”

She said the country did not necessarily need sophisticated solutions to address some of the major causes of maternal mortality, insisting that relatively simple and practical interventions could save lives if properly implemented.

According to her, conditions such as anaemia and pregnancy-induced hypertension could be detected early and managed effectively if frontline health workers were adequately equipped.

“Anemia is number one. We can solve anemia with something else. There are a lot of things now that we can use to solve anemia. Pregnancy-induced hypertension, it's not a difficult diagnosis. It doesn't need to be rocket science to fix it. We know that they are hypertensive,” she said.

The Deputy Minister proposed that essential equipment and commodities be made available at every primary healthcare facility, particularly CHPS compounds.

She said such facilities should have functional delivery beds, appropriate delivery and surgical instruments, integrated drapes and other basic commodities required to support safe childbirth.

She also called for the provision of small refrigerators at health facilities, powered by reliable electricity or solar energy, to ensure that medicines such as oxytocin are stored under appropriate conditions.

“We can ensure every single compound has a proper delivery bed. It is not rusted. And we can also provision there a small fridge. They have some level of electricity, whether it's solar, to power that fridge so that your oxytocin is stable,” she explained.

Prof. Dr. Ayensu-Danquah further advocated the provision of essential tools and commodities to midwives to enable them to respond promptly to complications during pregnancy and childbirth.

She expressed the view that a strong primary healthcare system, supported with basic equipment, commodities and competent personnel, could prevent a significant proportion of maternal deaths before patients reached emergency or tertiary facilities.

“My goal is, if we could give every single compound in health at this stage... the commodities, the surgical instruments or instruments to aid delivery, the integrated drapes, and ensure every single compound has a proper delivery bed,” she said.

Prof. Dr. Ayensu-Danquah stressed that prevention must remain central to Ghana’s healthcare strategy, arguing that by the time a patient reaches the emergency stage, the chances of survival may already have been significantly reduced.

She said investing heavily in primary healthcare could therefore complement efforts to strengthen emergency and intensive care services.

“If I put myself in the primary care level, I will get more than 80% reduction in mortality, whilst looking at the higher things,” she stated.

She explained that the principle of early intervention was not limited to maternal healthcare but could also help address other major health conditions.

“This pregnancy thing that we are talking about, it cuts across everything. It cuts across cardiac. It cuts across pathology. It cuts across endocrinology, the heart problem, the stroke, everything,” she said.

The Deputy Minister said many serious health conditions could be prevented from reaching emergency stages through early detection, appropriate treatment and adequate follow-up at the primary healthcare level.

She therefore urged stakeholders to prioritise interventions that were realistic, affordable and capable of being rolled out across communities.

She said the success of such interventions could have a ripple effect across the health system by reducing the number of patients who eventually require specialised emergency care.

“You will be surprised that you will now feed into the other types of emergency that we didn't plan to fix. But now, because of the things you are going to fix, it will prevent people from cardiac problems, stroke and more,” she added.

The workshop brought together health sector stakeholders to deliberate on strategies for improving maternal, newborn and child health, strengthening frontline services and building healthier futures for families.

Prof. Dr. Ayensu-Danquah said Ghana must therefore concentrate on areas where immediate action could save lives, while progressively addressing other challenges as resources become available.

On her part, Chief of Party (COP) of Project HOPE, Dr. Efua N. Aggrey, hinted that the partnership was focused on strengthening the capacity of health facilities and frontline workers to deliver effective maternal, newborn and child health services.

She said the intervention was designed to support healthcare providers with the skills, tools and resources required to provide skilled care throughout pregnancy, childbirth and the postnatal period.

The initiative also seeks to enhance maternal, newborn and child health services by improving the quality of care available to families, particularly at the frontline of the healthcare system.

Dr. Aggrey stressed the importance of strengthening health facilities and ensuring that frontline health workers were adequately equipped to respond to the healthcare needs of women and children.

The intervention forms part of broader efforts to address preventable maternal and child deaths by improving access to timely, skilled and quality healthcare.

The partnership underscores the importance of investing in preventive and primary healthcare while strengthening referral and emergency care systems to improve health outcomes for families across Ghana.

Story by: Joshua Kwabena Smith