President John Dramani Mahama has called for an aggressive national push to eliminate maternal deaths in health facilities across the country, describing the current situation as unacceptable.
He said every health centre must work towards achieving zero maternal mortality to protect the lives of mothers.
He made the call during the launch of Ghana’s Voluntary National Report (VNR) on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the Jubilee House on Tuesday, July 8.
The report highlights Ghana’s progress and challenges in meeting the SDGs, including Goal 3, which targets good health and well-being.
“It’s a statistic until it is your sister or your wife or your relative,” Mr Mahama said, adding, “So we say 300, but who are the 300 out of the 100,000? These are real lives — these are mothers, sisters and others.”
He stressed that addressing maternal mortality requires tackling systemic challenges, including poor road networks, inefficient referral systems, and the lack of commitment by some frontline workers.
“As he said, it’s a complex array of things that are responsible. I mean, an ambulance driver enjoying himself at a mid-meeting on the beach when a woman is waiting to be transported in his ambulance. In some places, it’s bad roads — just getting the woman from the CHPS compound to the district referral hospital for a safe cesarean section is sometimes what leads to a mother’s death,” said the President.
Mr Mahama recounted the impressive performance of the Dodowa Hospital, which reportedly recorded zero maternal deaths for four consecutive years.
He said their achievement earned them recognition as the best-performing facility in West Africa in maternal health outcomes.
