The First Lady, Rebecca Akufo-Addo, has handed over a newly constructed CHPS compound to the Gboloo Kofi community in the Akuapem North District of the Eastern region.
The project, which comes with state-of-the-art equipment and staff bungalows, was constructed in six months. The new Community-based Health Planning Services (CHPS) compound will not only provide primary healthcare but also midwifery services to pregnant women who otherwise would have to travel to other communities or the Akuapem North District hospital to deliver their babies. For about a decade, the Gboloo Kofi CHPS compound had been operating from a makeshift structure constructed through communal labour.
Although it provided healthcare to community members, the facility was dilapidated and lacked equipment to adequately monitor the health of patients. The newly constructed CHPS compound, an initiative of the Infanta Malaria Prevention Foundation, a brainchild of the First Lady, is to promote access to quality healthcare to deprived communities like Gboloo Kofi as well as help reduce malaria prevalence and deaths, specifically for pregnant women and children, to achieve Universal Health Coverage, UHC. The First Lady, who indicated that the facility will reduce the pressure on nearby health facilities, asked the community members to patronize and maintain the facility.
“As we are all aware, CHPS compounds promote access to quality and equitable healthcare services to all Ghanaians, particularly those in rural and deprived communities, and the Gboloo Kofi CHPS will ease the pressure on the three centres that serve the over 30,000 residents of this area which creates pressure on these health facilities, limiting care for many women and children.”
Plea from Staff
Head of the facility Kwabena Fosu while thanking the first lady for the facility, pleaded for more bungalows and a mobile network for communication.
“Most of the nurses live in nearby communities and always have to use okada or other means of transport. It makes working difficult since most of us don’t live around. We plead for more staff accommodation. Also, we need a mobile network here. As you sit here, you may be expecting an important call, but it will never come through because there is no network or internet here. In this digital age, we need networks and the internet to facilitate our work.”
The NPP Parliamentary candidate for Akuapem North, Sammy Awuku promised to support health facilities in the Akuapem North constituency with more equipment. Odikro of Gboloo Kofi, Nene Teye Gboloo was grateful to the First Lady and the Infanta Malaria Prevention Foundation for the gesture.
