The Ho Municipal Health Directorate has made significant successes in public health delivery in 2015.

The period saw a steady decline in maternal deaths from three in 2013, two in 2014 down to one in 2015.

On the referred cases to the Regional Hospital, total deaths reduced from 19 in 2013; 12 in 2014; and 8 in 2015.

“This is an encouraging picture by all standards and will be continued”, Dr Seake-Kwawu, Municipal Director of Health, said at the Directorate’s 2015 Annual Performance Review Meeting in Ho.

The theme for the meeting was: “Strengthening Primary Health care; key factor to improving maternal and child healthcare.”

He said anaemia in pregnancy at 36 weeks also declined from 24.2 percent in 2014 to 9.5 percent in 2015 whiles anaemia at registration remained at 53.6 percent.

Dr Seake-Kwawu said the period also saw malaria cases dipping by 15.3 percent from 70567 cases in 2014 to 59715 cases in 2015; whiles malaria cases among children under five years also went down by 20.1 percent from 17118 in 2014 to 13661 in 2015.

The malnutrition rate, he said, also went down from eight percent in 2014 to six percent in 2015 and this is “below the national figure of 11 percent”.

Dr Seake-Kwawu said challenges which confronted the directorate included lack of motor bikes, inadequate office space, clinical equipment staff residential accommodation and weak involvement of opinion leaders in the municipality.

The Directorate also suffered from delayed payment of National Health Insurance claims with huge deductions from a number of lower level health facilities, Dr Seake-Kwawu said.

Mrs Fafa Adinyra, Ho Municipal Chief Executive, in a speech read on her behalf, said the Assembly has completed new CHPS Compounds at Sokode Bagble and Kpenoe alongside one at Sokode Lokoe.

She said the Assembly is considering a Private-Public Partnership scheme to embrace health delivery in the municipal area.

Mrs Adinyra urged health facilities in the municipal area to submit their proposals to the Assembly for early consideration in the Composite Budget.