By Sualah Abdul-wahab
“Now, we do not have to travel to Kulkpong sometimes in the night on this bad road to access health care particularly during child birth. Our lives and health were at stake. Thanks to the District Assembly and the Member of Parliament for the area Dr Godred Seidu Jasaw.”
There were the remarks by Hawa Kwabena, a resident of Buler, a farming community in the Wa East District of the Upper West region after the inauguration of a Community Based Health and Planning Service, CHPS compound in the community.
Twenty years after the creation of the district, a population of about two thousand in the area had to travel for several kilometres to access primary health care. Buler and the surrounding communities will now heave a sigh of relief following the construction and inauguration of the health facility.
The Assembly has also sunk a borehole for the facility to ensure easy access to water for operation, while the community patronise water from the borehole for domestic use. The CHPS compound has accommodation powered with solar for convenient operation.
A similar project has been provided for Chasia community in the district. At the handover ceremonies of the two facilities at Buler and Chasia, the District Chief Executive for Wa East Adamu Sayibu said the construction of the health facility forms part of government’s agenda to provide at least two CHPS compounds a year to bring quality healthcare to doorsteps of the people.
“This facility is for you not the government. We need to take good care of it and the workers so that all of us will benefit immensely from it,” Mr Sayibu cautioned.
He said the needs of the people are many but one after the other, they will be tackled adding that more facilities will be provided. The Member of Parliament for Wa East Dr Godfred Seidu Jasaw commended the DCE for his dynamic leadership. He said his office will continue to collaborate with the assembly to strategically provide critical social infrastructure to improve the wellbeing of the constituents.
“The over one hundred thousand population of Wa East are really struggling for access to healthcare. So our strategy is that our primary health care service should be a priority to us. People should not die needlessly out of malaria, or childbirth,” Dr Jasaw noted.
He said the CHPS compound is therefore a critical infrastructure that can reduce malaria, infant and maternal deaths.
“Wa East is the only district in the Upper West Region without a hospital. We are appealing to the President, John Dramani Mahama and the Health Minister Kwabena Mintah Akando to complete the agenda 111 hospital in the district,” the MP concluded.
For the District Health Directorate, the facility is a stepping stone to achieving Universal Health Coverage. District Director of Health Dr Benjamin Aminyuure said the Directorate is collaborating with District Assembly and office of the Member of Parliament to upgrade the Bulenga health centre to polyclinic status.
This, he indicated will expand the delivery of quality healthcare to the people. The Assembly member of Jeyiri Electoral Area Naa Iddi Abdulai said Chasia community has used two single rooms as CHPS compound for two decades adding that residents now have a decent health facility to improve their health and dignity.
