Dr. Godfred Seidu Jasaw, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wa East constituency in the Upper West Region, has renovated and commissioned a Community-Based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compound for the Motigu community on Tuesday.
Prior to the commissioning of the facility, residents of Motigu in the Wa East District travelled about 30 kilometers to the Bulenga Hospital to access healthcare services.
Members of the community, through their own initiative, moulded blocks to start the project in 2006.
According to the law maker, the District Health Director brought his attention to the dilapidated nature of the facility and how the community members find it difficult to access primary health care in the Motigu community and appealed to him directly for support to complete the project, adding; when he visited the community “I was touched and promised that I will see to the commencement and completion of the project.”
The MP said he had support from the National Health Insurance Fund to help renovate the facility. And the total cost of the project was about GH¢78,000.
In spite of the challenge, the facility he said would be put to use while stakeholders worked to fix the electricity and other equipment to enable staff to work effectively.
He commended the contractor for doing a good job and appealed to the community to get volunteers to serve as security guards and cleaners at the facility.
The MP also donated an arm chair, and an ‘Apsonic Jangle’ motorbike to the In-charge of the facility to facilitate her movement.
Addressing the community members during the durbar, Dr. Damien Punguyire, the Upper West Regional director Ghana health services called on the community members to support the In-charge of the facility to provide quality healthcare to them.
He mentioned that nurses do not always want to accept posting to the Wa East District due to the lack of electricity, water and poor road network, and if the community members refuse to offer any support to the nurses may affect their work.
He also noted that the CHPS Compound needed some other components to enable it to function effectively, “We want to post a midwife here, but when these components are not in place, the midwife cannot work, and expectant mothers in labour will still have to go to Bulenga Hospital.”
Dr. Suleman Ewurah Kandia Mahama, the District Chief Executive, pledged that the Assembly would monitor the CHPS Compound to ensure it received the needed support, He mentioned that the Assembly will provide a fridge for the storage of drugs and also provide solar to the facility.
He thanked the MP for his support to improve health care delivery in the Constituency.