Accra, May 16, GNA - President John Agyekum Kufuor on Friday announced that the Government would make fee-free medical treatment of pregnant women in the country a permanent national health-care policy. He, however, counselled that this was not a license for married couples to ignore family planning, pointing out that spacing child birth would enable the Ghanaian woman to live healthy life and raise the life expectancy rate.

President Kufuor was interacting with a large gathering of women groups, including Queens, Christian and Muslim fellowships, farmers, traders and financial sector workers, among others, at the Castle Gardens.

They were there to convey their appreciation to the Government for securing 42.5 million pounds sterling support from the UK to give fee-free antenatal care to pregnant women as well as other policies introduced to improve the situation of women.

President Kufuor said Ghana's high maternal deaths had been a source of concern and that they were determined to bring it down. Every 100,000 deliveries claim about 500 lives compared with countries like Singapore and Malaysia where given the same number of births, the number of maternal deaths does not exceed five.

This, he said, was not reflecting well on the country's development and that was why during talks in London with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on the challenges, the nation faced, with regard to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), he raised the critical issues of maternal and infant mortality.

President Kufuor and Prime Minister Brown met on the sidelines of the "Business Call to Action" conference that discussed concrete ideas to speed up progress on the MDGs drawing on the power of businesses. The British funds would enable the Government to implement the free antenatal care policy for the next 14 years.

President Kufuor said there should be no case where women would be detained in hospitals and clinics after delivery for non-payment of fees.

The Health Minister, Major Courage Quashigah (rtd), said a Task Team made up of representatives from the Health, Finance, Women and Children's Affairs and Information Ministries had been established to work out the modalities for the take-off of the policy.

He was confident that by June, the modalities would have been worked out so that women who reported at the medical facilities for the first time for antenatal care were registered immediately for the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).

Hajia Alima Mahama, Minister for Women and Children's Affairs, said there was so much for Ghanaians to be thankful for and commend the government for citing the 210,000 GH Cedi micro-credit disbursed to those in the informal sector, acquisition of tractors and agro-processing machines to add value to their products. In addition, there had also been a 16 percentage point reduction in poverty incidence of female headed households as indicated by the 2005/06 Ghana Living Standards Survey (GLSS) as a result of the Government's carefully thought-out programmes.