The poor referral system is a cause of maternal deaths and adversely affects quality healthcare delivery in the Upper East Region Dr Emmanuel Kofi Dzotsi, Regional Director of the Ghana Health Service has revealed.
According to him, most maternal deaths recorded in the region were because of a poor referral system that caused undue delays leading to complications and deaths.
Speaking at the second meeting of the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council in Bolgatanga, organized for District Assemblies and Heads of Departments to brainstorm solutions to the mirage of challenges affecting the development of the region.
Dr Dzotsi noted that lack of funds to fuel ambulances, work on broken down ones and poor road network affected the referral system in the region.
The region in the last three years witnessed an increase in maternal deaths with 31 maternal deaths recorded in 2019, 36 maternal deaths in 2020, 43 of them in 2021, and 27 deaths at the end of November 2022.
“When the vehicle breaks down there is no money to repair them and secondly, they do not have fuel to move the ambulances when they are called for emergencies, and you cannot ask for money before you move a sick patient,” he lamented.
The Regional Director urged stakeholders especially Municipal and District Assemblies in the region to prioritize the healthcare of their people, make money available for repair works of these ambulances, and put in measures to constantly provide fuel for the ambulances.
“As I speak now, the Nabdam District ambulance has broken down, Bawku Municipal’s ambulance is also broken down after they were attacked by armed robbers. he added.
He said, “one of the maternal deaths was due to poor road network because the ambulance was called alright, the driver moved to a certain point close to the house and could not go further but the people could not come there to join the ambulance, so they had to use a motorbike to convey her from where they were to the ambulance, so before we got to the place to provide the care the woman died.”
The Regional Director further indicated that most of the health facilities especially the health centers and Community-based Health Planning Services (CHPS) compounds were in deplorable state and appealed to the Assemblies to take steps to rehabilitate them and complete abandoned CHPS compounds to improve upon quality healthcare delivery.
The move, he said, would support the network of practice planned for the healthcare system in sub-districts which every health center would be upgraded to a model health center to work together with the CHPS compounds, clinics, and pharmacies as one network providing healthcare to clients.
“This means that every person who is sick in that sub-district is taken care of as one network unless the case is beyond them that they can refer to the district hospital,” he said.
Dr Dzotsi also announced that 17 additional doctors had been posted to the region and appealed to the Assemblies to provide accommodation for them to enable them stay and work in the region.
Mr Stephen Yakubu, Regional Minister urged various stakeholders especially the Assemblies to endeavor to support the health centers when cases of this kind arise to reduce the incidence of deaths during emergencies.
