The refusal of health personnel to accept postings to rural areas is complicating healthcare delivery in the Tain District and other areas in the Bono Region as a number of completed health facilities have been left unused.
This is because of poor road network, difficult access to services like telecommunication network and electricity have made those areas unattractive for heath personnel, particularly nurses.
As a result four fully equipped clinics with furnished accommodation and mechanised boreholes at Tainso, Njau, Teadene and Tanokrom in the Bono Region have been left unused a year after completion.
They were constructed by a German-based charity non-governmental organisation, ‘Madamfo Ghana.’
Three other Community-Based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) Compounds at Yabraso, Akore and Dagadu have also been left to rot.
The District Chief Executive (DCE) for Tain, Charity Akua Foriwaa Dwommoh, who disclosed this, said the situation was defeating efforts of the assembly and development partners to provide health facilities for underserved communities.
According to her, the unfriendly attitude of some residents has also made the area ‘inhabitable’ for health workers, compounding the situation.
Interacting with journalists at Nsawkaw, Tain District capital, the DCE said the assembly had resolved to attach nurses’ quarters to any new rural health facility project, to at least accommodate two people as well as provide motorbikes to aid commuting of the health workers.
She also appealed to the rural folk to appreciate health workers and give them the needed support to make the communities habitable for them.
“I know it’s not obligatory but there’s nothing wrong for you to take care of nurses for them to also take good care of you. In some of the communities, access to buy basic things like bread is very difficult. Sometimes, donating food stuffs to them will motivate them to stay,” she stated.
Mrs Dwommoh said government was working around the clock to resource all the under-utilised health facilities in the district with the requisite personnel to boost healthcare delivery in the area.
FROM DANIEL DZIRASAH, NSAWKAW
