The health sector has singled out Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 4&5 and Family Planning as its main priority areas this year to develop the health sector and achieve the MDGs by 2015.
\n\u201cWorking to achieve MDGs 4&5 will be the only solution for the achievement of all the MDGs by 2015,\u201d Dr Elias Sory, Director-General of Ghana Health Service said in Accra on Tuesday.
\nSpeaking to the Ghana News Agency in an interview on the Health Sector\u2019s focus for 2011, Dr Sory said the current maternal and child mortality rates were not encouraging and therefore much efforts were needed to reduce them drastically in order to achieve the desired target by 2015.
\nGoal 4 aims at reducing Child Mortality among children below five years by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015 while MDG 5 seeks to improve maternal mortality health by three-quarters within the same period.
\nFor MDG 4 only five countries, excluding Ghana are on track to achieve the target of reducing under-five mortality rate by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015.
\nDr Sory noted that Ghana needed to maintain her political momentum to attain the MDGs 4&5.
\nHe explained that the maternal mortality rate in Ghana was currently 380 deaths per 100,000 live births and needed to ensure that it was reduced to 185 deaths per 100,000 live births whilst that of children reduced drastically.
\nThe current child mortality rate is 68.5 deaths per 1,000 live births.
\nDr Sory acknowledged the fact that some parts of the country that had high mortality rates had achieved targets of reducing maternal and child mortality, \u201cbut we need the total reduction of both rates for the country as a whole,\u201d he added.
\nHe noted that family planning was another area that would be targeted and had introduced programmes like life choices and would ensure that all family planning facilities were friendly.
\n\u201cWe will also ensure patience satisfaction and customer care and I urge all to enrol in the National Health Insurance Scheme to obtain proper health care at a lower cost\u201d
\nDr Sory said the health sector would by the end of January, this year, establish leadership training for all health personnel in the sector throughout the country to ensure leadership development.
\nHe called on health workers to be more innovative, use the best practices and continue to learn to keep track with evolving trends and challenges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The health sector has singled out Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 4&5 and Family Planning as its main priority areas this year to develop the health sector and achieve the MDGs by 2015. \u201cWorking to achieve MDGs 4&5 will be the only solution for the achievement of all the MDGs by 2015,\u201d Dr Elias Sory, Director-General […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-272776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n