A statement issued in Accra on Thursday by the US Embassy Press Attaché, Sara Veldhuizen Stealy, in Accra, said the USAID and its partners had since 2014, worked to revive the private maternity sector in underserved areas of the country.

 

The efforts made included working with existing private maternity home owners and providing training and assistance in both clinical and business skills.

 

It underscored the crucial role that these private maternity homes played in the provision of maternal and child health care, yet they had experienced a steady decline over the past decade, as midwives had aged and therefore the facilities have to be closed down.

 

The statement said the process of revitalising private maternity involves transferring the ownership of declining or closed facilities to younger midwives, who could make investments that would increase capacity, improve quality, and expand important maternal child health and family planning services in rural areas.

 

The USAID with its partners, it said had also been working to assist private maternity homes to complete ownership or management transformations designed to help the health facilities survive the departure of the primary owner or midwife.

 

Ms Akua Kwateng-Addo, the USAID and Ghana Health Office Director, who delivered opening remarks at a ceremony to mark the transformation, praised the achievements for being “catalytic in encouraging facilities to build a sound financial foundation, which ultimately led to improved quality of services.”

 

She highlighted the importance of public-private partnerships in light of Ghana’s Beyond Aid vision, saying, “Given limited donor funds, it has become imperative to identify alternate and innovative avenues for attracting resources and management expertise of the private sector”.

 

The statement said the development outcomes have shown promising results, with 88 per cent of surveyed private maternity homes demonstrating an improvement in financial sustainability, 92 percent indicating an improvement in the quality of clinical services, and 22 facilities completing a “transformation” process.

 

This meant that the private maternity home have taken critical steps to ensure financially sustainable ownership and management.

 

The event included presentations, poster exhibitions, and a panel discussion on revitalising the private maternity sector in Ghana, and attracted dignitaries from both the public and private sectors, including the Ministry of Health, Ghana Health Service and the Ghana Registered Midwives Association.

 

GNA