Royal Philips Electronics in collaboration with its local partner, F. Malawi Engineering Company Limited, on Thursday announced their commitment to improve maternal and child health care in Ghana.

Mr. Roelof Assies, District Manager Africa Director of Philips Health Care, said Philips is dedicated to improve the value proposition it brings to mother and child care in Ghana through the introduction of relevant solutions, partnership and clinical training workshop for doctors, clinicians and healthcare workers on an ongoing basis.

He noted that as Ghana is committed to achieve the Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5 and has therefore put in place an MDG Acceleration Framework (MAF) – Ghana action plan developed by the Ministry of Health in collaboration with the United Nations Country Team.

The focus of the action plan was on the MDG 5 because the progress in reducing the maternal mortality ratio by three quarters by 2015 was off track.

MAF focuses on improving maternal health at the community and health care facility level in order to achieve accelerated reduction in maternal and infant mortality.

Philips reiterated its commitment to strengthen healthcare infrastructure across the region by establishing its first West African Regional office in Accra, which would be functional in the third quarter of 2012.

Mr. Assies said the office would support the local channel partners across the West African markets and allow Philips to be closer to customers and key decision makers, broaden its reach and expand the range of product offerings and customer services.

“As a leading company in health and well-being, Philips aims to help transform the quality of healthcare in Ghana and other African countries through meaningful solutions, innovations and partnerships,” he said.

Royal Philips Electronics of The Netherlands is a diversified health and well-being company, focused on improving people’s lives through meaningful innovation as well as integrate technologies and design into people-centric solutions based on fundamental customer insights.

Philips has introduced IntelliVue, a range of bedside patient monitors that offer a real time view of patients’ physiological information and enable clinicians to help identify subtle changes in the mother or baby’s physical condition, resulting in faster and more efficient care.

With access to affordable patient monitoring equipment like the IntelliVue range, clinicians have the ability to observe a patient’s vital signs and make more informed, timely decisions about medical care.**