Involve communities in the implementation of health programmes – DCE

Mr. Francis Oti Boateng, District Chief Executive (DCE) for Asante Akim North, has called for stronger collaboration among all key stakeholders in the health sector to help improve access and quality of service delivery.

He said there should be greater involvement of the local communities – chiefs, political and faith leaders, development partners and other relevant groups in the planning, design and implementation of healthcare programmes.

This, he said, was the way forward to achieve the intended outcomes – have the best possible results.

Mr. Boateng spoke of instances where health infrastructure - hospitals, community health centres, Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compounds and others, had remained non-functional for years, because of the exclusion of the people in the decision-making and implementation process.

Such situations often come about largely from the lack of proper consultations and co-operation with the relevant stakeholders in the inception, design and the implementation of these projects.

The DCE was speaking when a team from the World Vision International Ghana (WVI-G) paid a courtesy call on him at his office in Agogo.

The team, comprising officials from the national headquarters and local representatives of the WVI-G was in the area to assess the impact of the health and nutrition project, the organization is implementing there.

It also provided the opportunity to listen to the local authorities about how the partnership between the assembly and WVI-G could be further strengthened to increase access to primary health care.

Touching on the health situation in the district, Mr Boateng said it had been struggling with inadequate infrastructure and logistics, especially in the rural and deprived communities.

He applauded WVI-G for its various health interventions - community health sensitization and awareness creation programmes, which were having, tremendous impact on the maternal, child and general health care in the district.

Mr. Micah Ayo Olad, the Health, Nutrition and HIV/AIDS Specialist of WVI-G, outlined a number of interventions the organization had introduced in the area to improve the health and quality of life of the people.

These include the setting up of ‘Community Health Committees’, ‘Mother to Mother Support Groups’, and ‘Savings for Transformation’.

Mr. Ronald Roland Micah, the District Health Director said the support of WVI-G in terms of capacity building and communities’ sensitization /engagement on health issues had contributed immensely to improvement of healthcare service delivery in the area.

He appealed to WVI-G and other development partners to consider supporting the district to better its health infrastructure and logistics.