Resource CHPS to attain Universal Health Coverage – NCCE

The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) has called on government to adequately resource the Community based Health Planning Services (CHPS) Compounds to enable them deliver quality healthcare services to the public.

Dr Henrietta Asante-Sarpong, the Director of Research, Gender and Equality, NCCE, said CHPS played a critical role in the health sector as it provides essential services, especially to hard-to-reach communities.

Dr Asante-Sarpong made the call in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region.

She was in the region as part of a monitoring team to assess the implementation of the Community Performance-based Financing Pilot Project, an initiative being carried out by the NCCE in collaboration with the Ghana Health Services with funding support from the World Bank.

The pilot project provides medical supplies and incentives to some selected CHPS facilities in a bid to facilitate quality healthcare service delivery especially in the areas of maternal and child health services.

The project is being implemented in eight districts across four regions including the Upper East, Upper West, Savannah and Volta regions.

The Director of Research said the CHPS facilities were a backbone to attaining the Universal Health Coverage and the Sustainable Development Goals particularly goal three, however, they lacked basic infrastructure and medications to ensure smooth operation.

“In the first and second quarter’s assessment, it was very clear that essential medications are always not available, yes we do know that we have some basic medicines that are supposed to be available but in some cases it happens that such medicines are not available and one will have to be asked to go out to buy,” she added.

Dr Asante-Sarpong said the citing of some CHPS facilities hindered the client’s ability to access health services from those facilities due to far distance from communities.

She appealed to the government to build more CHPS facilities to provide basic but critical health services particularly, maternal and child health services.

The Director said the project was yielding results as clients in the intervention zones expressed satisfaction at the services delivered either by the outreach service providers or those at the CHPS facilities.

She expressed optimism that the survey would not only provide the basis for the expansion of the project to other facilities but would enable the Ghana Health Services to better understand the needs of the health facilities and address them accordingly.