Accra, April 24, GNA - Dr. George Yankey, Minister of Health on Friday said though the Ministry had achieved considerable gain in the fight against malaria, the disease continued to be one of the major killer diseases that the Ministry had to tackle.

"While we congratulate ourselves that the overall performance of the sector has been good, the ministry is still behind schedule in meeting the health-related MDGs", he said, adding that a number of preventable deaths occurred daily. Dr Yankey said this when the Ministry signed an Aide Memoir with development partners to improve health services delivery. He noted that the Ministry needed to strengthen its emergency services while making maternal and child health services a priority. Dr Yankey said, "We need to ensure contraceptive and commodity security. This will contribute in the reduction of maternal and neonatal mortality".

The Aide Memoir reflects the commitment of health partners towards improved performance of the health sector. It also reflects the collective responsibility of agreed resources for implementation and for monitoring and evaluation of the ministry's activity.

Mr. Donald Teitelbaum, U.S. Ambassador to Ghana said the strength of their efforts were reflected in some of the Demographic Health Survey data such as the drop in the under-five mortality from 111 per 1,000 children to 80 per 1,000.

He said development partners would continue to interact with the leadership of the National Health Insurance Authority. "We all recognize the critical challenges concerning Human Resources and Financial Management in the Health sector and are encouraged by the commitments undertaken by government in the aide memoir" He said.

He called for a continuous attention on decentralization of Human Resource functions.