Don’t manage maternal cases until it’s very late to refer—Prof Abdul-Mumin appeals to health facilities
Medical Director at the Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH), Prof Alhassan Abdul-Mumin, has appealed to health facilities in Northern Ghana to endeavor to refer maternal-related cases early as it steps up efforts to significantly reduce maternal deaths in the area.
He disclosed this at the 2024 Annual Performance Review of the hospital to Xtrememediaonline on the sidelines of the program on Thursday, explaining that most of the deaths were caused by delays by the patients to report to the hospital and delays within the health systems.
“So, they call them the three delays. Actually before a pregnant woman decides to [go] to the hospital,
They would’ve done a lot of things, so that is already the first delay. If they even decide to go to the
hospital, how to find an appropriate place to come to the hospital is also another delay. Either there’s no
vehicle-appropriate ambulance or the road is not even good and when they decide to come to the
hospital, sometimes also, there are delays within the health systems that can cause the deaths. Those
are the key issues that we get,” he explained.
He said as part of efforts to reduce maternal mortality, Specialist Doctors of the hospital have been
dispatched to the various health facilities to support them in managing pregnancy women, to reduce
incidents of late pregnancy complications.
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Prof Abdul-Mumin said the TTH needs partnership with partners to ensure the initiative does not
become “a nine-day wonder.”
He added that the hospital has also worked on some broken down equipment at the Maternal Intensive
Care Unit while training more specialist doctors to help improve maternal health care in the hospital.
Speaking on some of the challenges that hindered effective health care delivery at TTH, Chief Executive
Officer, Dr Atik Adam said the current water and power crisis that have hit Tamale is significantly
affecting the operations of the hospital.
“Despite the success, we face several challenges, including water shortages. This is a major headache for the facility. Unstable power supply. Sometimes, we can run for more than 24 hours on the generator, and that consumes a lot of diesel, and it’s not good for our machines as well. So we experience high level of equipment breakdown because of the unstable power supply.”
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He appealed to the utility service providers to work to improve the situation.
Dr Atik said despite the challenges, the hospital has continued to procure modern equipment, expand its pediatric unit, and embark on outreach programs to offer free services to people within its catchment area.
He said he was confident that the hospital will continue to deliver the best services to achieve its target
of becoming a center of excellence in health service delivery in the country.
The Northern Regional Minister, Ali Adolf John, said the John Mahama government will implement
initiatives to provide affordable and quality health care services.
He said the government remained committed to making health accessible to all Ghanaians.
“The government of HE John Mahama remains committed to making health accessible to all
Ghanaians. I assure you that this administration will continue implementing initiatives in the health care
sector to provide quality health care at an affordable cost.”
The Tamale Teaching Hospital recorded 57 maternal deaths in 2024, with as many as 49 of the deaths
due to late referrals from other facilities.
Although this is a significant reduction from the number of deaths recorded in 2023 (79), the hospital
said much more needs to be done to further reduce the numbers.