From Michael Boateng
The plight of the people of Dinkra in the Nkoranza North District in accessing healthcare delivery has been eased by the timely intervention of MTN Ghana for providing the community with a Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) Compound.
It is to liberate the over 5,200 people within the catchment communities of Dinkra, Kunsu, Betoda, Padol One and Two, Asugya, Benfrano and Agege who have to travel at the mercy of the deplorable road for 20 kilometres before reaching the nearest health facility, the Dromankese Health Centre.
Some of the residents, in their ecstasy, recounted their ordeals when people are to be sent to Dromankese during emergencies, as vehicles are normally difficult to come by, and the roads from the hinterland communities are rugged and unmotorable.
The MTN Manager for the Northern Business Sector, Mr. Samuel Sarpong, during the commissioning of the CHPS Compound, noted that access to healthcare has been a bane to the delivery of healthcare to people in rural communities.
Mr. Sarpong said there was a great disparity in healthcare delivery between the urban and rural areas that needed to be addressed, and because of this disparity, there was an urgent need to pay attention to the critical needs of the communities, hence the provision of the GH¢216,000 CHPS Compound, built by MTN Ghana Foundation for the chiefs and people of Dinkra.
The facility has an Out-Patient-Department (OPD), delivery room, consulting rooms, nurses’ station, labour ward and accommodation for the staff.
He said the facility was in line with the Foundation’s health focus area, since it was committed to improving health care delivery in the communities MTN is operating, and assist Ghana to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 4, 5 and 6 by 2015.
Mr. Sarpong said he was optimistic that the facility would help reduce maternal and infant mortality, provide preventive and promote such services as child welfare, ante-natal and post-natal care services, health education and counselling services.
He said since the Foundation was established in 2007, it had spent over GH¢15.5 million on community development projects in health, education and economic empowerment.
Some of the projects in the region are the construction of a 30-bed female ward for the Sene District Hospital, six-unit classrooms with office for Saunders Community School and Atuna District Assembly Community School, and a three- unit classroom block for Adamsu, as well as donating neo-natal incubators to the Goaso Government Hospital and ventilators to the Sunyani Municipal Hospital.
The Nkoranza North District Director of Health, Mr. Donatus K. Achisiba, receiving the keys to the facility, said it would bring relief to the people, because, aside patients travelling from 20 kilometres to access healthcare delivery, health personnel have to travel long distances daily to render health services.
According to Mr. Achisiba, in terms of health outcomes, available records indicate that 90 per cent of still births are from these communities, a situation which showed that women in labour reported late to the health facility.
He said there were 26 CHPS facilities, seven of them have permanent compounds, six have temporary compounds, and the remaining 13 are in operation but without compounds.