Health Minister, Dr Bernard Okoe-Boye
Residents of Ave-Dakpa in the Akatsi North District of the Volta region are calling on the government to come to their aid by providing basic medical supplies and adequate staff to the Ave-Dakpa Health Centre.
According to the residents, the health centre lacks essential medical supplies, basic amenities, and adequate staff, which is a major challenge to health service delivery in the district.
Many residents of Ave-Dakpa and adjoining communities have had to seek health services in neighbouring Dzodze and Akatsi during emergencies, resulting in complications and sometimes fatalities.
A concerned resident of the area, John Ahiale, said in an interview that for several years now, the area with a vast population of about forty thousand can only boast of a small health centre.
"You see, my brother, Ave-Dakpa is the capital of the Akatsi North District, which was carved out of the then Akatsi district. Since the creation of this district, we only have a health centre taking care of the health needs of the huge population.
"Can you imagine that a whole district has just one small health post for this large population? Even that, there is inadequate personnel to run the place, coupled with the lack of medical supplies and other basic amenities. We have been appealing to the authorities to come to our aid to no avail. There is currently an ongoing project, which we are told is our new hospital, which is even taking forever to complete," a distraught Ahiale lamented.
He added: "Anyone who has ever visited the Ave-Dakpa Health Centre would appreciate that we are really suffering in terms of accessing quality health care services. How can a health post exist without permanent medical and nursing officers, no source of water, laboratory equipment for simple medical tests, a reliable means of transport, toilet facilities, and medicines for common ailments?"
A visit by this reporter to the Ave-Dakpa Health Centre revealed that it is more of a CHPS Compound than a health post. There is nothing in it that is thriving; everything is almost dead.
One visits the facility to see benches used as beds, dilapidated chairs, and a few ward assistants as the resources the facility can boast of.
As a result of this sorry state of affairs, inhabitants of the area have almost lost confidence in the operations of the few personnel there. But day in and day out, poor, suffering patients still troop in there to seek some medical care.
Complicated cases are usually referred to St. Anthony Catholic Hospital at Dzodze, which is a couple of miles from Ave-Dakpa.
As much as one would agree that healthcare delivery in the country is facing major hitches, interventions by the government, NGOs, corporate bodies, and philanthropists can bring some respite to the people using these facilities.
A permanent medical officer, one or two qualified nurses, a laboratory technician, a pharmacist or dispenser, ward assistants, and midwives need to be posted to handle cases in these deprived communities.
It must be appreciated that the people of Ave-Dakpa are predominantly peasant farmers. Poverty and lack of basic necessities are therefore rife in the enclave.
Their continued survival would be threatened should they continue to battle with where and how to access affordable, quality healthcare services.
There is a need for the Akatsi North District Directorate of Health Services to regularly extend public health and environmental sanitation programs to the people of the area. There is also a need for allied agencies, like the Environmental Health and Sanitation Department, Information Services Department, Environmental Protection Agency, churches, and schools to also join hands in this cause.
If Ghana is to meet its United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) targets by 2030 for goals number 4 and 5, which aim 'To reduce child mortality' and 'To improve maternal health' respectively, then the conditions of health facilities such as the deplorable Ave-Dakpa Health Centre need serious and urgent attention.
