Emergency Preparedness of Health Professionals in Combating Maternal Mortality in Ghana: A Health Facility-Based Descriptive Study

Ghana was unable to meet the millennium development goal five target of 190 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in 2015, as the country’s maternal mortality ratio is still high (358 deaths per 100,000 live births). A target of the newly-set sustainable development goal three also requires the country to reduce the maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 deaths per 100,000 live births by 2030. We examined the country's emergency preparedness in pursuit of this target.
The study was a descriptive cross-sectional survey, which collected data from 537 physicians and nurses/midwives at three regional level health facilities in Ghana using a 26-item questionnaire. Frequency, percentage, and chi-square statistics were used in presenting the results and describing associations. All analyses were done using SPSS (version 22).
We realized that about 6-10 maternal emergency cases were recorded at the selected facilities every week. Essential logistics such as oxygen, blood, and ambulance services required for managing such cases were either never available, or sometimes not available. Even though training courses/workshops were regularly organized to improve the emergency preparedness of health professionals, most of them did not attend.
Health professionals are not prepared to handle all maternal emergency cases due to non-availability of some essential logistics and a lack of regular training to update their skills to enable them to handle such cases. Ghana is, therefore, unlikely to meet the sustainable development goal three target by 2030. To forestall this, management of hospitals and the Ghana health service must ensure that all essential logistics are always available at hospitals to avert unwarranted maternal deaths. A whipping system should also be put in place to ensure professionals attend training workshops organized for them.