Greater Accra Regional Health Directorate organises blood donation on May Day
Records at the Greater Accra Regional Health Directorate of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) indicate that 100 out of the 197 maternal deaths that occurred in health facilities in the region last year were due to haemorrhage.
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The directorate has therefore embarked on a campaign to create awareness on the problems of bleeding during pregnancy and childbirth as the major cause of maternal mortality, among other issues, and how to address them.
For this reason the regional health directorate is embarking on a voluntary blood donation campaign to solicit for blood to be stored in some blood banks within the region to save the lives of women.
The first in the series is being organised in Accra and Tema on May Day.
A three-member delegation from the directorate, comprising Mrs Sarah Amissah-Bamfo, Deputy-Director, Clinical Care Division, Dr Naa Oyoo Akaba, Regional Coordinator, Maternal Health, and Dr Afua Asante, Osu Klottey sub-Matro Health Director (Public Health), yesterday called on the Managing Director of the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL), Mr Kenneth Ashigbey, to solicit media support to promote the campaign.
A statement issued and signed by Dr Amissah-Bamfo described maternal death as the death of any woman that occurs during pregnancy, labour and six weeks after birth due to preventable factors, indicating that maternal death remained the best indicator for the quality of women’s health care worldwide.
Three-year trend
According to the statement, a three-year trend of maternal mortality in greater Accra indicated that in 2014, 204 maternal deaths, representing 189.3 per 100,000 live births were recorded in health facilities in the region, while 208 deaths, representing 177 per 100,000 live births and 197 deaths, representing 180.4 per 100,000 live births, were recorded in 2015 and 2016 respectively.
Highlighting other causes of maternal deaths apart from excessive bleeding, the statement mentioned unsafe abortion and hypertensive disorders during pregnancy which could lead to a condition known as pre-eclampsia or eclampsia, sepsis and prolonged labour.
Effective treatment
The statement said urgent blood transfusion was the single most effective treatment in this case, implying that the non-availability of blood at the blood bank could lead to many deaths which could have been prevented if there was enough blood in stock.
“This is why we are appealing to all citizens of Ghana to cultivate the habit of donating blood voluntarily to stock the blood banks with enough safe blood that is readily available to help save lives” it said.
For this reason, the regional health directorate is organising a voluntary blood donation campaign dubbed ‘The Regional Bleeding Day’ on Monday, May 1 (May Day) at the Ridge Regional Hospital, the Maternity Pavilion and in Tema at the Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA) forecourt, and appealed to the general public “to be part of the success story”.