Rural communities need improved health facilities – Doctor
Accra, Dec 9, (GNA) – Dr Jessica Samira Bogobiri, Director of Cornerstone Medical Outreach (CMO), a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) based in the Northern region, has proposed that adequately equipping health facilities in rural communities would facilitate improved healthcare and reduce avoidable deaths.
She expressed worry that rural communities had been deprived of basic and quality health care as result of poor state of facilities in these areas, and that it was important that health facilities in rural communities are upgraded to improve access to good health care services, which is a fundamental human right.
She said “when it comes to quality health care, people in the rural communities have been neglected because the Community-based Health Planning Services (CHPS) Compounds available only take care of minor ailments, and those who can afford travel long distances to urban centres on referrals for major treatments”.
Dr Bogobiri, who is a Family Physician Specialist at the Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH), said this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), when her outfit provided free health screening for the people of Yankazia community in the Saboba District of the Northern region as part of efforts to expand access to quality health care to people in deprived communities.
The exercise was to ensure that the community members were in good and healthy conditions to improve on their wellbeing.
It again provided the people an opportunity to have access to medical consultancy and other services. They were screened for, blood pressure, malaria, typhoid fever and blood sugar among other diseases.
She said “these CHPS Compound do not have professional medical doctors to attend to them when they go for medical attention and when they are diagnosed of major ailments and referred to bigger hospitals in the cities, it becomes a problem because most of them live in poverty”.
Dr Bogobiri therefore called on government and other stakeholders to prioritise the health concerns of those living in rural communities by providing them with improved health facilities to expand access so as to improve on their living standards.
Apart from the health screening exercise, the NGO presented some clothing, shoes and other items to the people.
Residents of the community expressed gratitude to the CMO team for the intervention, and appealed to other corporate bodies to help address their health needs.
GNA
