Ghana: TTH records high maternal deaths, says Kareem Mumuni

The Chief Executive Officer of Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH) in Ghana, Dr. Kareem Mumuni, has said in the 2019 Annual Performance Review of the hospital which was held in Tamale that Ghana has recorded 46 maternal deaths last year as against 44 in 2018, representing an increase of 24 percent in the death rate, according to a news report by Ghanian Times.

Mumuni expressed worry about high numbers of infant and neonatal deaths in the hospital and promised to initiate measures to tackle the situation. He has also asked all the stakeholders in the health sector to assist in addressing the issues.

Mumuni said, "it was unacceptable for TTH to be recording high infant and neonatal deaths, adding that "infant and neonatal deaths have been on the increase over the past three years; there is the need for multi-stakeholder engagement to address this worrying trend."

He said that the frequent deaths are not only affecting quality health delivery but also putting a huge financial burden to the hospital, indicating that the hospital's biomedical engineers together with the equipment suppliers are working around the clock to ensure that this essential service should fully be restored as soon as possible.

Mumuni said that the hospital's management has started discussions with engineers of Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo) to address power outages, reiterating his resolve to motivate staff and management to improve quality healthcare delivery in the hospital.

The Northern Regional Minister, Salifu Saeed called on the authorities of TTH to increase efforts to prevent coronavirus.

He stated that the region shared boundaries with Togo, Burkina Faso and other countries that have recorded coronavirus cases, hence there is an urgent need to put an appropriate measure to prevent an outbreak in the country.