They expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of a community health centre, indicating that the lack of such a facility had left them with limited healthcare alternatives, forcing them to seek healthcare in adjacent towns.

"Pregnant women sometimes lose their unborn babies because they are unable to access antenatal care and skilled delivery," they said.

Speaking in an interview, the Asenhene of the Gomoa Assin Traditional Area and Chief of Gomoa Assin Mampong, Nana Obuabeng Tawiah XVI, stated that the situation was getting worse by the day and that pregnant women were particularly vulnerable.

"Our people always have to travel to the Winneba Trauma Hospital for medical attention and also pregnant women are forced to go all the way to Winneba or the next town to seek antenatal care and during labour which is not always safe for them,” he said.

He consequently urged the government, as well as other charitable organisations and individuals, to provide them with a health centre to alleviate their difficulties in obtaining health care.

Nana Tawiah also urged the government to assist in the construction of a road in the community to aid residents to transport their farm produce to the markets and carry on their daily activities with ease.

He said the community was rapidly expanding, necessitating immediate road intervention to serve the residents and ensure their livelihoods were sustained.

"Residents have to go through hell to get their products to a nearby market because of the road's condition.

"I'm sure you will agree with me that roads have an impact on people's work, particularly in emergency situations and their livelihoods," he said.

Commissioning

Meanwhile, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), We R US Ghana, has cut the sod for the construction of the first-ever traditional and herbal health facility at Gomoa Assin Mampong in the Effutu Municipality of the Central Region.

The facility is the first of numerous traditional health centres to be built across the country by the NGO.

The facility will be equipped with all of the required amenities to make the work of the health personnel there as simple as possible.

According to the Chief Operations Officer of the NGO, Yaw Nkunim, the facility would use the traditional or herbal process to treat patients who would visit the facility.

“We will focus on the use of herbal drugs more, therefore, we will be biased towards the use of herbal medicine,” he reiterated.

He said the NGO intended to train herbalists and community members at the Mampong Centre for Crop Research Institution and Herbal Centre to man the facility.

Monitoring

The Chairman of the Board of Trustees for We R Us Ghana, Prof. Kofi Asare Owusu, urged community members to preserve and protect the facility when it was completed, noting that it would be the community's first health facility.

"This will be the first health facility in this Gomoa Assin Mampong community, thus it will be proper that community members take good care of it when it is completed, to aid other investors embark on more projects that will grow the community," he said.

He said herbalists and anyone interested in herbal medicine should take advantage of training and certification opportunities, because it was a source of employment in the community.