Koforidua, May 21, GNA - Dr Obeng Apori, Director of Koforidua Regional Hospital, on Wednesday advised that any scheme to support pregnant women at health facilities should be routed through the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to make it sustainable. He said there was no need to establish a parallel scheme to cater for only delivery when anti-natal and post-natal care was very important to reduce the high rate of maternal mortality. Dr Apori therefore, called for collaboration between Ghana Health Service, Ministry of Health and National Health Insurance Authority on the effective utilisation of the 42.5 million pounds sterling British Government Grant to Ghana Government to support the reduction of maternal mortality in the country.

He gave the advice in an interview with Ghana News Agency on the effective utilisation of the grant in Koforidua. Dr Apori said already a module on how the NHIS was being used to reduce maternal mortality had been instituted in the Suhum Kraboa Coaltar District.

He said under the module, an NGO, provided funding for the registration of all pregnant women who had not registered with the scheme to enable them access better medical care before and after delivery. Dr Apori explained that exemptions for delivery, which was practiced in the country sometime ago, did not help much in the reduction of maternal mortality. He said the exemptions did not cover free medical care for pregnant women before delivery and the six weeks health care needed after delivery, that were very critical if pregnant women were to be protected. Dr Apori said to help reduce maternal mortality, there was the need for a review of facilities and equipment for delivery at various clinics and hospitals. He said in some cases lack of simple but critical equipment could affect the performance of the clinic when a woman in labour was rushed to there. Dr Apori stressed the need to improve upon the referral system in the country so that it would be easier to transfer pregnant women with difficulties from one health facility to the other. He noted that solution to most of the maternal mortality problems in the country was the training of more health personnel to have a qualified midwife at every CHIPS centre and a gynaecologist in every district hospital.