Women and residents at Kwadwo Addaikrom, a farming community in the Asunafo North Municipality of the Ahafo Region have appealed for a maternity ward at the Community-based Health Planning Service (CHPS) compound in the area.
That would help improve maternal care, but also reduced the stress pregnant women go through during labour or delivery.
“The resident midwife has converted her room into a labour ward where pregnant women go to deliver their babies”, Nana Kofi Anane, the Chief of Kwadwo Addaikrom told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview during a visit to the community.
He said the people were worried about the condition of the CHPS compound which served the more than 4,500 residents, and therefore appealed to the government and her development to come to their aid.
Nana Anane said the facility lacked modern and standard medical devices and equipment that met the health demand needs of the residents, an awful situation, impeding quality healthcare provision in the community and adjoining settlements.
In a brief background, the chief explained the CHPS compound was constructed and handed over for use around 2004, however, it was bedeviled with obsolete medical devices and equipment, worrying that for the past 20 years, it had not seen any renovation work.
The CHPS compound is the only health facility in the area which also served other residents in the Asutifi North District of the Ahafo Region.
Nana Anane said he personally constructed a pavilion, which now served as an Out-Patient Department (OPD), and a weighing center for newborns, saying lack of residential accommodation for the health workers was another major challenge.
He said due to lack of washrooms, it was difficult for some of the patients to ease themselves whenever they visit the facility for healthcare, however others used nearby bushes as places of convenience.
Nana Anane said the residents would forever be grateful, if the government renovated and upgraded the CHPS compound to meet the growing population in the area.
Mr Abraham Kwabena Seipela, the Assemblyman for the area, appealed to NGOs, corporate and religious bodies to come to the aid of the people and to tackle development needs of the community.
He expressed worry that the lack of residential accommodation for the health workers hampered efficiency in the health provision.
The assemblyman said the facility needed urgent expansion and rehabilitation works to enhance the wellbeing of the cocoa farmers to improve cocoa productivity.
