The 2025 Half-Year Performance Review of the Eastern Regional Health Directorate was held in Koforidua in the New Juaben South Municipality of the Eastern region on the theme “Improving Access to Primary Health Care, A Prerequisite For Achieving Universal Health Coverage”.
The review revealed that the institutional maternal mortality ratio in the Eastern region increased from 116 per 100,000 live births in 2024 to 117 per 100,000 live births in 2025 same period.
Addressing the gathering during the event, the Eastern Regional Minister, Hon. Rita Awatey, was alarmed by the trend, saying institutional maternal mortality must be the utmost priority for all stakeholders in the region as the government aimed to improve primary health care in Ghana.
According to her, “It is quite worrying to hear our queen’s death while giving birth, we should be able to identify high-risk pregnancies for interventions, the most strict ideal management of pregnant women during delivery”.
She continued, “We must assign tasks to staff with prerequisite skills and training, organise periodic refresher training to fill knowledge gaps, conduct effective supportive supervision to empower and correct mistakes, and exhibit preferable attitudes in the course of service delivery, timely referrals, and effective communication among nurses”.
The Minister further reiterated the government’s commitment to continue to offer the needed support through improving health infrastructure, as well as recruitment of the needed manpower and logistics for efficient and quality health service delivery to achieve universal health coverage.
She concluded: “The government has charged every district assembly to prioritise the construction of additional CHPS compounds in underserved areas, rehabilitate and refurbish existing ones whose structures have deteriorated, and equip them to be able to deliver the much-needed quality health care at the community level”.
