Dr Oheneba Owusu-Danso (3rd left) and some board members of KATH
Maternal mortality at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi during the first half of this year has increased slightly as compared to last year.
Even though the number of deliveries at the top medical facility saw some reduction, the number of pregnant women who lost their lives whilst giving births increased.
“Deliveries dropped from 5,250 in 2016 to 4,263 in mid-year 2017, recording a decrease of 18.8 percent,” Dr Oheneba Owusu-Danso, CEO of KATH, made the disclosure.
“Unfortunately, however, the maternal mortality rate increased slightly from 791.38 per 100,000 live births to 985.22 per 100,000 live births,” he expressed gross concern.
Dr Owusu-Danso was addressing heads of units and directorates at KATH during the opening of the 2017 annual two-day mid-year performance review workshop at the hospital on Tuesday.
The workshop offered KATH the opportunity to take stock of its activities during the first half of the year to note their successes and failures so they can plan for the rest of the year.
Dr Owusu-Danso, giving statistics about how KATH fared in the first half, disclosed that diagnostic services dropped from 161,317 cases in 2016 to 156,104 cases in mid-year 2017, recording a decrease of 3.23 percent.
He said primary out-patient presentations at the Family Medicine Directorate dropped from 32,208 cases in mid-year 2016 to 31,708 in mid-year 2017, which translates into a decrease of 1.55 percent.
During his delivery, the CEO of KATH also disclosed that ward admissions also dropped from 18,243 in mid-year 2016 to 17,860 in mid-year 2017, thus, posting a decrease of 2.10 percent.
Dr Owusu-Danso explained that emergency admissions over the period under review dropped from 10,739 in mid-year 2016 to 9,929 in mid-year 2017, which translates into a decrease of 7.54 percent.
Surgical operations dropped from 9,729 in mid-year 2016 to 8,892 cases in mid-year 2017, a decline of 8.60 percent, adding that physiotherapy services rose to 9,564 cases by mid-year 2017 from 8,747 cases in 2016, an increase of 9.34 percent.
Dr Owusu-Danso said specialist out-patient attendance (OPD) recorded 137,208 cases for the first half of the year as against 131,326 cases in 2016, thus, translating into an increase of 4.48 percent.
Radiotherapy services recorded 4,085 cases in the first half of the year as against 3,644 cases in 2016, thus, translating into an increase of 26.51 percent, the CEO indicated.
“General blood screening at our laboratories listed 9,534 cases in mid-year 2017 as against 9,342 in 2016, recording an increase of 2.06 percent,” Dr Owusu-Danso disclosed.
“Non-surgical procedures recorded 3,987 cases in mid-year 2017 compared to 2,572 cases recorded in the same period in 2016, and thus achieving a massive 55.02 percent increase over the previous year,” he indicated.
On the maternal mortality, Dr Owusu-Danso said, “These figures clearly indicate that there is still a lot that as a specialist care institution we need to do to bring this statics down.”
FROM I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr., Kumasi