A Community-Based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) Compound at Atwima-Asamang, in the Atwima Kwanwoma District of Ashanti, has been abandoned for the past seven years.
When completed, the facility would serve about eight communities in the district, including Kwadwobenkrom, Adafua, Abrokyire, Asamang, and Nyamebekyere.
Abandoned since 2015, the building has been roofed and plastered with some windows and doors fixed.
According to the Assemblyman for the area, Alhassan Malik, efforts made to contact the authorities concerned such as the Member of Parliament, District Chief Executive to make the CHPS Compound meet its goal have proved futile.
“I have made series of complaints to the District Chief Executive, the regional health directorate, and the Member of Parliament yet the story remains the same,” he quipped.
He appealed to the authorities to make the CHPS Compound realise its purpose for which it was put up.
Some of the community members said the abandoned health facility has created a vacuum for health-related challenges because if it had been completed, it would serve the interest of the community.
District Chief Executive, Prince Karikari, could not be reached for comment.
In 1999, Ghana introduced the CHPS Compounds as key primary health care strategy.
It is a national strategy for implementing community-based service delivery by reorienting and relocating primary health care from sub-district health centres to convenient community location.
The strategic goal of the CHPS concept is improving the health status of the people living in Ghana by facilitating actions and empowerment at the community levels.
Basically, services provided by the various CHPS compounds include; the provision of health education related to prevailing health problems and the methods of preventing and controlling them; promotion of food supply and proper nutrition.
Also, the provision of adequate supply of safe water and basic sanitation; maternal and child healthcare; including family planning; immunisation programmes against the major infectious disease; prevention and control of locally endemic diseases; appropriate management of the minor ailments and injuries and provision of essential drugs, which all aim at helping ensure improved access to primary health care in such communities.
FROM KINGSLEY E.HOPE, KUMASI
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