Dr Pascal Kingsley, the Wa East Director of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), has bemoaned the lack of a secondary-level healthcare delivery facility in the entire district.
“One of the biggest challenges in terms of providing quality healthcare services to the people of the district is the lack of a secondary level health facility such as a district hospital or a polyclinic,” he said.
Dr Kingsley was speaking on the floor of the Upper West Regional Youth Parliament on the motion “Health Delivery in Wa East District; the Challenges and the Way Forward.”
He said the Wa East District is the only district in the Upper West Region which cannot perform emergency obstetric and newborn care services due to the lack of appropriate facilities.
“What that means is that we cannot provide emergency obstetric and newborn care services in any of the facilities in the district,” he lamented.
He said the district had to constantly refer patients to other districts where there are secondary-level health facilities for timely care.
Dr Kingsley lamented that lives have been lost in the district as a result of the poor healthcare situation resulting from the lack of appropriate structures.
“We have therefore lost lives as a result of emergencies needing operations, especially among pregnant women due to referrals reaching late to the nearby district hospitals,” he bemoaned.
He indicated that the district health authorities had begun measures to upgrade some of the health centres in the district to at least polyclinics.
He cited the case of the Bulenga Health Centre where upgrading works were being carried out for the purpose.
On adolescent reproductive health issues, Dr Kingsley said teenage pregnancies continued to surge in the district despite interventions it recorded a total of 104 teenage pregnancy cases in the first quarter of 2023.
He called for concerted efforts from all stakeholders to arrest the situation.
The Upper West Regional Youth Parliament donated a cash amount of GHc5,000 to support the upgrading works of the Bulenga health facility which when completed could support surgical operations.
The parliamentary sitting was graced by Mr John Nkaw, the Country Director for ActionAid Ghana; Dr Mahama Suleman Kandia Ewurah, the District Chief Executive for Wa East, and significant others.