Poor roads hamper healthcare delivery in Afigya-Kwabre

The bad nature of roads in the Afigya-Kwabre District is hampering quality healthcare delivery to the people in the area.

Madam Anna Ofori, the District Director of Health Services, said this was making it difficult to promptly respond to emergency cases, resulting in many preventable deaths.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Ankaase she indicated that there was an urgent need to rehabilitate the road linking the only referral facility - the Methodist Faith Healing Hospital, at Ankaase, to the Kumasi-Mampong road.

That, she said, would allow for smooth transportation of referral patients.

The facility has been serving not only people in the district but the adjoining Kwabre East, Sekyere South and parts of the Kumasi Metropolis.

It was therefore important the government acted quickly to improve the road network and provided other ancillary facilities to assure the people of access to quality healthcare services.

Madam Ofori called for upgrading of the Afrancho Health Centre into a hospital to serve as another referral point.

Construction work on a health facility at Atimatim - a sprawling semi-urban community in the district, should also be speeded up.

She mentioned malaria, hypertension and diarrhea as major cases seen at the health facilities in the district.

She spoke of progress made in the reduction of maternal deaths and said this was achieved through sustained community health outreach and education campaign.

Madam Ofori complained about delays in the reimbursement of service providers by the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) and said that was crippling their operations.

She applauded the management and staff of the Methodist Faith Healing Hospital for the hard work, dedication and quality of care, which had turned it into one of the reputable health facilities in the Ashanti Region.