An Accra-based businessman and a citizen of Amenam near Afosu in the Eastern Region, Mr Kwaku Agyekum has single-handedly constructed GH¢35,000 Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) facility for his community.
Inaugurating the facility, the Birim North District Coordinating Director, Mr John Owu commended Mr Agyekum for his sense of patriotism and said the best compliment the people could pay to him is to utilize the facility judiciously
to enhance their health status.
Mr Owu urged staff who have been posted to man the facility to show commitment and dedication to work by visiting the communities in order to establish friendly relations and educate them on health related issues like HIV/AIDS, regenerative health and environmental hygiene, among others.
He said the Assembly has supplied wooden electric poles to facilitate power supply to the compound, adding that, the Assembly, in collaboration with its development partner, the European Union (EU) has completed the construction of a GH¢45,000 CHPS compound with a two-seater KVIP at Nyafoman which would soon be handed over to the health administration.
The District Director of Health Services, Mr. Tei Djangmah described the CHPS concept as one of the best strategies being implemented by the Ghana Health Service to send quality health services to the doorsteps of the people in the various communities.
Mr. Djangmah said the District Health Administration had extended CHPS to fifteen communities in the area.
He said as a result of the concept, the district is one of the areas having the highest health insurance coverage in the Eastern Region and advised the nurses in the district to closely monitor pregnant women to ensure that they attend antenatal clinics to forestall any complication during delivery.
Mr. Djangmah said even though Birim North was one of districts used as a practical site for students and other district health monitoring teams to demonstrate the concept, unfortunately there is no strong vehicle to send visitors around, thereby hampering the propagation of the programme.