Some pregnant women in Soe-Yipala, a community in the Bolgatanga Municipality of the Upper East Region are crying for help following a Community-Based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compound under construction since 2016 that has been abandoned.
The Ultra-modern facility which has an accommodation attached has been roofed and remains some plastering and other finishing touches.
The community with over 300 residents does not have a CHIPS compound where they can seek primary health care.
According to some women, the community members came together and built a mud structure in 2007 to house the health workers in their daily activities. But the Bolgatanga Municipal assembly that saw the need to construct a befitting health facility, stepped in with the provision of the CHPS facility.
Unfortunately, the mud structure has been carved in due to torrential rainfalls and construction of the CHPS compound came to a halt. The community members lamented that their hopes of getting a befitting health facility were dashed after the authorities failed to complete the project.
The situation has therefore compelled health workers to sit in the open under the mercy of the weather to administer health care to patients.
Residents of Soe-Yipala who say the absence of a health facility in the community hampers proper health care are therefore calling on the government to as a matter of urgency complete the abandoned CHPS compound.
“Getting access to health care has been challenging to us especially at the night. We find it difficult to walk kilometers upon kilometers to the regional hospital. We need help”, Evelyn Nyaaba a resident appealed.
Another woman named Beatrice Akanperige said “the lack of health facility in this community is worrying. Sometimes when you are in labor and they are transporting you to the regional hospital, sometimes you are forced to deliver on the way before getting there. We are struggling when it comes to health care. Look at this building, that was the CHPS compound which was started in 2016 or so but it has been abandoned. It is now turned into a classroom for students because we don’t have a JHS Block too.”
Anafo Nsobila one of the aggrieved women in Soe-Yipala added her voice that “when it is night and you call a tricycle (CAN DO) they won’t come because they are afraid of armed robbers. When a child is sick at night how can we send him/her to the hospital? We really need help.”
According to the Assembly member of Soe-Yipala, Abambire August, the contract was awarded under the District Assembly’s Common Fund in 2016 but due to the meager nature of the fund and the delay in releasing the fund, it has affected the progress of work.
Mr. Abambire said, the assembly is aware of the Soe-Yipala situation and plans are far advanced to complete the facility for effective health delivery.
Source: A1Radioonline.com|101.1Mhz|Samuel Adagom|Ghana
