Focus action on building more CHPS compounds

The government has been urged to focus action on the construction of more Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compounds to provide the rural population with improved access to quality healthcare.

Mr Danso Yeboah, the Asante-Akim South District Health Director, said there was the need for deliberate and sustained efforts to give opportunity to people in deprived and difficult-to-reach communities to receive appropriate health interventions.

He said benefits of the CHPS compounds were tremendous and therefore should become a priority - the numbers would have to drastically increase.

The idea for establishing the compounds was to bring health workers closer to the people by visiting them in their homes to provide primary care and other services.

He cited the situation in the district where there are only four of such facilities, two were built by the Hunger Project-Ghana (HPG), as multi-purpose centres and the other two operating from rented premises, adding that, these were “woefully inadequate”.

Mr Yeboah told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that with over 60 per cent of the area’s population based in remote rural communities, access to healthcare was proving to be a major difficulty and that things ought to change.

To sufficiently improve care delivery services, the district requires not less than 10 CHPS compounds.

The GNA had visited the area under STAR-Ghana’s media auditing and tracking of development projects, a multi donor support project launched to put a spotlight on how government’s resources can be use to transform the lives of the people, especially those in rural areas.

The goal is to aid transparency, promote accountability and good governance.

Mr Yeboah called for increased consultations between the assembly and the heath directorate, when it comes to taking decisions on the construction of health infrastructure.

This, he said, was necessary to ensure harmony and even distribution of resources.