Dr. Koku Awoonor-Williams
MANY COMMUNITIES in the Upper East region are said to have more access to health care delivery as a result of the establishment of the Community-based Health Planning and Service (CHPS) Compounds.
At a three-day workshop in Navrongo, Upper East Regional Director of Health Services, Dr. Koku Awoonor-Williams indicated the policy has helped to reduce infant and maternal mortalities in the region, calling for more involvement of district assemblies and the communities in health care delivery.
CHPS, a national healthcare delivery policy developed and tested by the Navrongo Health Research Centre (NHRC), is a system where community health officers (CHOs) live in compounds and provide basic health care to the people and make prompt referrals when necessary.
They also help to bring health care to the doorsteps of the people by making routine home visits where they treat ailments such as simple coughs, malaria, diarrhea, monitor blood pressure and provide health education on family planning, counseling on antenatal and postnatal care and immunization.
The policy, he said has helped the Upper East Regional Health Directorate to attain the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs 4 and 5), that is halving child and maternal mortality rates respectively.
The Navrongo workshop was organized by Ghana Essential Health Intervention Programme (GEHIP) in collaboration with the Navrongo Health Research Centre (NHRC) and sponsored by Doris Duke Charitable Organization.
It was organized for selected journalists, doctors and researchers from Ghana and abroad for them to brainstorm on how to disseminate health research information to the people.
Dr. Awoonor-Williams noted that apart from providing accessible health care, CHPS has increased couple/partner support for family planning in the rural communities as 38 percent of females living in CHPS zones reported that their sexual partners approve of family planning as against 28 percent of women with no access to the CHPS facility.
He said there are currently about 112 CHPS compounds in the region, hoping to scale up the number to about 187 by 2015.
Dr. Awoonor-Williams however lamented over the high cost of the project in recent times saying the compounds which used to be built at between GH¢10,000 and GH¢12,000 with the participation of community members, were now being built at over GH¢50,000 by district assemblies.
Explaining that the cost could slow the pace of provision of CHPS compounds, Dr. Awoonor-Williams appealed to the district assemblies to facilitate provision of the needed health facilities in the region.
He gave the available health infrastructure in the region as regional hospital 1; district hospitals 5 (of 9); 33 health centres, 48 clinics, 96 functional CHPS compounds, one maternity home and eight private clinics/hospitals.
Dr. Philip Adongo of the Department of Public Health, University of Ghana, who presented a paper on Urban CHPs, said unlike the rural communities, the policy has not been successful in the urban centers.
Citing about four CHP compounds at Dome, a suburb of Accra, Dr. Adongo identified implementation challenges such as the heterogeneous nature of the urban community and cross-cutting health facilities available to the people.
According to him, he and his team are currently engaging communities in the area for the success of the policy and hoping to increase the number of CHPS compounds in the area.
From Awudu Mahama, Navrongo
