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30.07.2013 General News

Community Health Planning Service inaugurated at Adukrom

30.07.2013 LISTEN
By Daily Graphic

A new Community Health Planning Service (CHPS) compound has been inaugurated at Adukrom, a farming community in the Ahafo Ano South District in the Ashanti Region.

The new facility will serve over 6000 people from communities such as Amokrom, Bokruwa, Gyaukrom, Aponaponso, Nyamebekyere, Sabronum Camp, Apenemadi and Adukrom.

Until the opening of the facility, the people had to travel more than 14 kilometres before they could access health care at either Sabronum Health Centre or at the Mankranso Hospital.

Aside the distance to be covered before reaching a health centre, the road network in the area is so bad that it rather worsens the conditions of patients who travel to any health facility nearby.

The facility was constructed by the people with self-help support through communal labour.

It has a facility for OPD, ante-natal and postnatal care, delivery and child welfare, family planning and school health and residence for the nurses and other staff, among others.

Inaugurating the facility, the Ahafo Ano South District Director of Health Service, Mr Reuben Bedzrah, said the new facility would ease the burden of the people and reduce the difficulties they went through before they could access quality health care. He called on the people to patronise it.

He said since infrastructure development was very crucial in quality health care delivery in the country, there was the need for the government and other stakeholders in the country to take a second look at the issue.

The district director stated that since it was the government's policy to make quality health care accessible to all Ghanaians, there was the need for infrastructure development to be given a major priority and added that if various metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies in the country could lead the crusade by constructing at least one CHPS compound every year, the issue of scarcity of health facilities would soon be a thing of the past.

Mr Bedzrah said having more health facilities in communities would not only help improve health care delivery but would also reduce the cost of seeking health care since people would not have to travel too far before getting access to a health facility.

In the 1990s, intake into health care facilities in the country was between 650 to 700 yearly, but now the situation has improved so much that it stands at 7000 yearly.

Mr Bedzrah said since the issue of personnel was gradually being resolved, by increasing intake into health training schools, there was the need for infrastructure to also be tackled to match up with the increasing numbers of personnel.

He called on the chiefs, unit committees, the various stakeholders and beneficiary communities to take good care of the facility to ensure that it would serve the purpose for which it was established.

The District Chief Executive for Ahafo Ano South, Mr Gabriel Barimah, said since quality health care delivery was one of the government's priorities, the assembly would continue to support the development of health care facilities for the people.

He pledged to build one CHPS compound in the district every year to help improve access to health care.

According to the District Health Information Officer (DHIO), Mr Reuben Osei-Antwi, the district has one hospital, five health centres, six CHPS compounds, five private and Christian Health Association of Ghana (CHAG) facilities.

He said because of the bad state of roads in the district, there was the need for more health facilities to be constructed to reduce the challenges the people went through before reaching a health facility.

He appealed to the people to support health personnel posted to their communities to enable them to  show dedication and commitment in the course of their duty.

By Felix A. Baidoo/Daily Graphic/Ghana

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