Ms Sherry Ayittey, Minister of Health, said the government was committed to providing improved infrastructure and training equipment to health training institutions in the country.

She said though access to health care in the country was steadily improving, the government was still pragmatic and was putting measures in place to efficiently resource the various health training institutions to ensure availability of professional health officers.

“With that in place, Ghanaians would have access to efficient and effective health care,” she said.

Ms Ayittey said this in a speech read on her behalf during the Second Congregation for Health Assistants at the Abetifi Midwifery Training College at the week-end.

She said the government would do all it can to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on health.

The Health Minister said increasing the number of trained midwives as well as boosting finances for the provision of family planning services and equitable distribution of health care officers across the country were all realistic ways of achieving the targets.

“It is against this background that government since 2009, had been aggressively scaling up midwifery training schools in the country,” she said.

Ms Ayittey said the government had built new schools in the rural and deprived areas and had also provided all training schools with improved infrastructure, training equipment, logistics and means of transport to facilitate the movement of students and tutors to practical sites.

She said the Kwahu Government Hospital, which served as a practical site to the college, had also benefited immensely from government supply of equipment and logistics for effective training.

Ms Ayittey advised graduands to practice their profession with humane hearts, dedication and love for their clients wherever they were posted.

Ms Helen Adjoa Ntoso, Eastern Regional Minister, expressed worry about maternal mortality in the region which rose from 168 in 2011 to 207 in 2012.

She expressed the hope that the large number of young nurses and midwives graduating from the college would bring positive change on the poor picture of maternal health in the region and in the country as a whole.

Newly enrolled nurses, numbering 263, and 420 midwives graduated from the college.