Some 82,000 children die every year (out of 1,000,000 live births in the country) before they attain the age of five.

This, according to the Deputy Minister of Heath, Dr Alfred Tia Sugre, is because of limited access to quality healthcare, and appealed to health personnel to strive hard to address the situation.

Dr Sugre stated this during the launch of Integrated Sanitation, Hygiene and Nutrition for Education (I-SHINE) and Rural Emergency Health Services and Transport (REST) Project at Walawale in the West Mamprusi District.

The two projects, which were launched by the Catholic Relief Services (CRS), are to be implemented in six districts: East and West Mamprusi, Mamprugu Moaduri in the Northern Region, Nabdam, Talensi and Kasena Nankana West in the Upper East Region. It is aimed at improving the overall health and wellbeing of some 1,000,000 people.

I-SHINE project

The I-SHINE project is targeted at 120 community schools to reach 450,000 beneficiaries within a three-year period.

The REST project is also estimated to reach out to 850,000 beneficiaries via health facilities and community-based strategies to improve access to quality healthcare for vulnerable women and children in 200 communities within three years, from March this year to April 2017.

The programme is on the theme, “Improving community health, education and wellbeing through an integrated approach.”

Dr Sugre said the two projects would address the causes of maternal mortality such as delay in seeking healthcare, getting access to healthcare and the provision of quality healthcare.

Upgrading hospitals

He said the government had initiated work to upgrade a number of hospitals, including the Central and Volta Regional hospitals to the status of teaching hospitals in order to expand the scope of training medical doctors and other healthcare specialists.

He added that the government was in the process of transforming the Kintampo Rural Health Training Institute into a university college to support the training of physician assistants for ambulances and emergency services.

Dr Sugre also called on the government and the private sector to scale-up their high impact on health facilities and also engage the people at the community level to change their negative attitude towards pregnant women to prevent deaths.

He said the government would establish additional 1,600 CHIPS compounds across the country by the end of 2016 to help improve geographic access to health service, especially for women and children.

Country representative of CRS

Madam Lisa Washington-Sow, Country Representative of CRS, said the two projects were to focus on emergency response, agriculture and health in the six districts in the two regions.