The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has reported a concerning surge in maternal mortality in the Upper East Region, with deaths rising from 40 in 2024 to 60 in 2025.

The spike has driven the institutional maternal mortality ratio to 132 per 100,000 live births, a significant increase from the 97 per 100,000 recorded the previous year.

Speaking at the 2025 Annual Performance Review meeting, Dr Braimah Baba Abubakari, the Regional Director of Health Services, noted that the figures deviated sharply from the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) target of 70 deaths per 100,000 live births by 2030.

The review on the theme: “Strengthening health systems for sustainable and equitable access to quality health care: the role of monitoring and supportive supervision,” served as a critical self-assessment tool for the GHS to evaluate milestones and refine service delivery strategies. Dr.Dr Abubakari further stated that anaemia in pregnancy was not good, with a record of 17,377 in 2025 as compared to 17,020 in 2024, while the total Ante-Natal Care (ANC) coverage increased from 74.28 percent to 83.65 percent.

He said first trimester ANC registrants stagnated from 60.2 percent to 60.3 percent, which was above the 2025 target of 55.0 percent, “We intend to increase this figure through continuous health education on the importance of early reporting,” he added.
Dr.r Abubakari indicated that the region stagnated in its efforts at improving still births rate from 9.9 percent in 2024 to 9.9 percent in 2025, even though the 2025 target was pegged higher at 11.5 percent.

“Institutional neonatal mortality saw an increase from 5/1000 live births in 2024 to 6/1000 live births in 2025, representing a 14.9 percent increase over the previous year’s figure. Institutional all-cause mortality rate also reduced slightly from 19.3 percent to 18.9 percent,” he said.

The Director said maternal, child, LD, and adolescent health issues continued to be a priority in the region, and that with support from health partners, the region continued to build the capacities of midwives and community health nurses to promote quality maternal health care.

He said the active Regional Maternal Mortality taskforce continued to support facilities to audit and implement recommendations of maternal deaths.

“Midwives were taken through refresher training in safe motherhood to sharpen their skills to avoid maternal deaths. We intend to support more staff to acquire skills in newborn resuscitation to reduce the stillbirth rate,” he added.

On clinical dataDr.Dr AbDr.akari indicated that the Region saw a slight decline in its total Out-Patient Department (OPD) attendance per capita from 1.20 in 2024 to 1.18 in 2025 over a total population of 1,421,293.

He said the top 10 causes of OPD attendance in 2025 included malaria, Upper Respiratory Tract Infection (URTI), diarrhoeal diseases, typhoid fever, and anaemia. “This ranking has been almost the same in the last three years.

“As a region, we will continue to strengthen our Sub-Districts and District levels to intensify and carry out vigorous education in the community for clients to be aware and take keen interest in their health issues,” he said.

Dr. Abubakari praised the “gallant” efforts of health managers, District Directors, and frontline staff at Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compounds and health centres for their dedication under challenging circumstances.

Ghana's Colonial Masters: Why the UK and the Netherlands didn't support the resolution on slavery