Questioning the commitment of policy makers, regulators and others to better maternal healthcare in Ghana

Women make up more than 50% of the population in Ghana. Of this, more than 90% desire to have children of their own at one point in their lives or the other. This is more than anything else re-inforced by our culture that tends to put more pressure on women when it comes to childbearing. Unfortunately, we have no systematic way of ensuring accountability in maternal health care delivery. Goverment hospitals and clinics get whatever little subventions they are given irrespective of the quality of services they provide. Even in cases of blatant neglect leading to deaths of either mothers, neonates or both, neither Ghana's medical and dental council nor the nursing and midwifery council does anything to show that anyone is held accountable to forestall any future occurences.

As for the Ministry of Health, the Ghana Health Service or any of their agencies even making any attempt to ensure that lessons are learnt to avoid such deaths, the least said about it the better. Private Hospitals, Clinics and maternity homes have sprung up to meet the void regarding demand and available public facilities in the area of maternal and child health. Unfortunately, there is no systematic monitoring system in place to really find out what they do and whether or not they provide standard or substandard service. Women and neonates die daily and the Ghanaian ends up "giving it to God", knowing that even when they report to some of these so called regulatory bodies, nothing ever comes out of it.

I am looking forward to the day these structures ACTUALLY work, and when citizens, especially women speak up to demand better service. Enough of the "Give it to God" attitude. The Old man is quite tired of it by now.

Read Article in the Daily Graphic of Saturday, July 3 on this issue at this link: