PATRONAGE OF PRAYER CAMPS, FACTOR TO MATERNAL MORTALITY (Page 20)

STORY: Joe Okyere, Cape Coast

THE high patronage of prayer camps by pregnant women in the Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem (KEEA) District is affecting efforts to reduce the high maternal mortality rate in the district.
The District Director of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Yaw Ofori-Yeboah, expressed the concern at an end-of-year review/awards ceremony jointly organised by the GHS-KEEA District Assembly at Elmina.
Dr Ofori-Yeboah said even though the GHS in collaboration with the KEEA and the Ghana Private Road Transport Union had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for drivers to send women in labour who could not afford transport fares to health facilities, such women continued to patronise prayer camps.
The drivers are reimbursed later by the GHS and KEEA District Assembly.
Dr Ofori-Yeboah said such women stayed at the prayer camps and were rushed to the health facilities when there were complications in their conditions.
He said the collaboration had helped to save the lives of about 100 mothers and babies in the district.
Dr Ofori-Yeboah commended the KEEA for its support for the GHS in the district.
In all, six drivers received certificates and special commendations for conveying pregnant women to health facilities under the collaboration. Thirty others were also commended.
The Regional Director of the GHS, Dr Aaron Offei, said the MoU, which was signed in 2005, had now been extended to all the districts to reduce the high maternal mortality rate in the region.
He said more than 270 pregnant women had benefited from the programme since its inception, and stressed the need to deepen the collaboration.
The District Chief Executive for KEEA, Mr George Frank Asmah, advised drivers to be disciplined to help reduce accidents on the roads.
The District Co-ordinating Director, Mr Saaka Dramani, who chaired the function, commended the drivers for their efforts to help the health sector to meet its challenges.