Staff of the Tindonsobligo Health Centre are appealing to residents within the community to utilize their services. This appeal has become necessary after staff of the facility realized that residents still do not patronize their services even after the facility’s status was upgraded from a CHPS facility to a Health Centre.
The change in status means that the facility now operates 24 hours and has an added number of experienced staff. Additionally, there has been an expansion in infrastructure.
Physician Assistant at the facility, Aboegyi John-Vianney, speaking to Mark Smith on the Day Break Upper East Show, worried that if patronage of the facility fails to increase, staff and management of the facility would not be able to argue for even further expansion of the facility or an increase in staff and equipment.
“If residents patronize the facility and our targets improve, then there would be the possibility that our facilities too would be improved. We can make the argument for more staff, more infrastructure, and more equipment to run. If you are not patronizing it, then whatever good things that government plans to donate to us, they would give it out to others after all, the targets achieved may not support our argument for expansion,” he said.
Theresa Asigri, Midwife at the facility, was worried that despite the facility’s target of 16 child deliveries expected per month, the facility delivered only one woman in the previous month.
She argued that the facility is better staffed to provide services to pregnant women, stressing that “this one, it is one of one. We would have the time to attend to all your needs as a pregnant woman.”
Registered Community Nurse at the Tindonsobligo Health Centre, Sancia Boare, appealed to community members to show up to community health durbars. She said if many residents attended the durbars, they could give invaluable feedback to the facility on how they can improve their services. She expressed worry that often, only the elderly within the community showed up to the community durbars.
“If we call for durbars and only people aged 60 are coming, people that have even stopped giving birth are the only ones coming, how are we going to run the facility? We know Tindonsobligo is a working community. Most people go to the market, but we are appealing to them so that we can reason together. Even if you think the facilities should run in the evening, come and tell us,” she said.
Community Health Nurse Seidu Rahinatu said improved health had been brought to the doorstep of residents in the community and urged them to take advantage of it.
Source: A1Radioonline.com|101.1Mhz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
