Tamale Teaching Hospital takes step to reduce maternal death
The Obstetrics and Gynecology Department of the Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH) is to embark on a campaign to reduce the increase cases of maternal deaths in all the 20 districts of the Northern Region.
The initiative is aimed at updating the knowledge and skills of health personnel in the various health centres, support them to manage maternity cases better and reduce late referrals.
Dr Ken Sagoe, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Hospital, made this known during a three-day annual performance review of the TTH on Thursday in Tamale.
The meeting, which brought together development partners and various directors and staff from the hospital’s departments, sought to take stock of their performances in the year 2011 and deliberate on how to address challenges the region was facing.
He said cases of maternal deaths increased from 33 in 2010 to 47 in 2011, while Caesarian Section rate also swelled from 15 per cent in 2010 to 20.3 per cent in 2011.
In the area of emergency care, he said, the hospital successfully conducted a surgery for a Minister of State and provided an intensive care service to high level security personnel.
The hospital, he added, managed four mass road traffic crushes, which involved more that 40 casualties in each event and also conducted urological outreaches in the Upper East and Upper West regions.
Dr Sagoe also revealed that the TTH had also established a Psychiatric and Mental Unit and would soon allocate and dedicate a ward for the department.
He said the staff strength of the hospital had improved tremendously. Currently there are about 100 doctors, 668 nurses and 59 laboratory technicians. The X-Ray department, however, needed more personnel.
The CEO said the hospital was poised to establish a decentralization department with appointment of administrative managers across all the clinical and diagnostics departments.
With regards to Information Communication Technology, he said, the hospital in collaboration with Vodafone Ghana would establish a computer laboratory to enable the staff undertake on-line training.
Mr Sam Bugiri, a former Director of Public Health of the Ghana Health Service said the provision of health services in the region had improved but more work needed to be done to ensure child and maternal health.
He urged the staff of the hospital to work hard to ensure safety and sound health care delivery in the region.
Source: GNA