The Hohoe Municipality of the Volta Region has recorded zero maternal mortality cases within the first six months of 2022.

The Municipality recorded only a case each in the entire 2020 and 2021 and it is the hope of health workers that the year 2022 would record zero cases as it had been within the last six months.

Ms Gifty Asempa, Acting Hohoe Municipal Director of Health Services in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on the side-line of the “2022 Half Year Performance Review Meeting,” said it was good news since no facility from the sub-district and in the entire country would want to record a maternal death.

She revealed that maternal deaths sometimes occurred because of social problems where some mothers who were being monitored at sub-district levels do not understand why they should be referred to a higher facility.

Ms Asempa noted that health staff have continuously been engaging the mothers through counselling and education and that was working very well for the mothers.

She noted that a Primary Care Provider Network (PCPN) programme had been established to enhance quality health service delivery, which includes coordination and human resource sharing within the network.

Ms Asempa said the PCPN also involved various health workers who work as a team and share ideas, especially during times when they were faced with logistical challenges and when there was the need to refer patients to higher health facilities.

Through teamwork, Malaria cases have also dropped from being at the top of Out Patient Department (OPD) cases, she added.

Ms Asempa said Hohoe had been identified as one of the districts with pre-elimination of malaria nationwide because they do assess cases well before they were treated.

“When we test and it is positive, we treat but when it is not, we don’t,” she added.

She said the district had also been identified as one of the districts that were working according to the protocols of the National Malaria Control Programme.

“You realised that in the past malaria was always the first on the list, meaning data capturing is also another problem, which we might not be doing well. But after the training and other capacity building involving the various cadre of staff, we are doing the right thing.”