A New Regional Medical Stores has been inaugurated and handed over to the Bono East Regional Health Directorate at Kintampo.
The refurbished facility was an abandoned structure which used to be the then Brong-Ahafo Regional Medical Stores.
The rehabilitation works was funded by the United Nations Population Fund (UNPF) and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and other partners.
The Bono East Region would no longer rely on the Bono Region for medical supplies with its attendant delays.
The Director General of Ghana Health Service, Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, who performed the handing over ceremony at Kintampo on Friday commended the UNPF, USAID and the Ghana Health Service of the region for the various roles in ensuring the success of the project.
The facility, he said would help in addressing challenges in the distribution of essential health commodities to facilities in the region.
Dr Kuma-Aboagye called for additional support for a forklift, seed money and others to ensure effective and efficient running of the medical stores for the region.
He also called for the establishment of similar facilities in the newly created regions to promote health needs of the people in those regions.
The Regional Director of Health Services, Dr Fred Adomako-Boateng, on his part said the region having its own medical stores would help in resolving the inadequate supply of essential health commodities often recorded in health facilities, leading to needless deaths in the region, as they would be able to have the right quantity from the national distribution point.
He said the decline in the erratic family planning commodities in the region was as a result of the situation, noting that this would be a thing of the past.
The Bono East Regional Minister, Kwasi Adu Gyan, said the opening of the regional medical stores was a giant step forward towards the realisation of the Sustainable Development Goal three of bringing health care to the doorsteps of the people.
The facility, he said would help store wide range of high quality medical supplies and medical equipment for the rendering of services in health facilities in the region and serve as vital distribution centres to other hospitals in other regions
FROM DANIEL DZIRASAH, KINTAMPO
