The residents of the Atiyorum electoral area in the Kassena-Nankana West District have inaugurated a Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compound to aid access to health care in the area.
There was no health centre in the community until 2006 when the community members decided to raise funds to establish a CHPS compound. Due to the lack of resources to continue the project, it stalled.
As a result, nurses that were posted to the community were compelled to operate on the same premises with school children in a dilapidated classroom structure.
“We were running our services in one of the classrooms. Anytime a client was coming for family planning services and you asked the woman to lie down for insertion, the school children were peeping through the windows. Due to that, we were not getting the number of clients we were supposed to serve as a CHPS. But now, sometimes we get up to 20 OPD cases,” a Community Health Officer at the Atiyorum CHPS compound, Sebastian Ayelkambe recounted how health care delivery was hampered because the privacy of the clients was not protected.
Residents of Atiyorum, especially mothers, who had to trek long distances to neighbouring communities to access health care can now heave a sigh of relief following the commissioning of the Atiyorum CHPS compound.
Paulina Afankya, a mother in her late thirties said “due to the distance trekking to neighbouring health facilities, women in the community were reluctant of becoming pregnant.”
In the year 2007, the government awarded the construction of a maternity block for the community. Unfortunately, the construction of the project which is at the window level came to a standstill.
Assemblymember for the Atiyorum electoral area, Akafuule Charles said efforts to get authorities for the completion of the project have proven futile.
“We want the central government to try and complete the project for us. And if the government can get us a complete health centre that will comprise accommodation for the nurses because, as a community, we are already doing our best”, he appealed.
Kassena-Nankana West District Health Director, Hypolite Yeledour commended the community members for their efforts towards the attainment of universal health care coverage. While calling on other community members to emulate the efforts of residents of Atiyorum, the director said about 29 CHPS zones in the district are without functioning facilities.
Source: A1Radioonline.com|101.1Mhz|Joshua Asaah|
