USAID hands over CHPS compounds to two districts in Volta Region

Lotakor (V/R), Dec. 20, - The United States Agency for International Development has handed over four Community-Based Health Planning Services (CHPS) compounds to the Ketu North and South Districts in the Volta Region.

The facilities, built in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, the Ghana Health Service, and the Korea International Development Agency (KOICA), formed part of USAID'S Systems for Health project.

The CHPS zones have clinical and residential units, with water, power and incinerator installations and are located at Lotakor, and Glitame in the Ketu South Municipality, and Kasu, and Klenormadi in the Ketu North District.

A press release made available to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) said more CHPS compounds were under construction in other parts of the Volta and the Northern regions to improve health delivery, with a focus on maternal and child health and nutrition.

Madam Sharon L. Cromer, USAID Ghana Mission Director, at a durbar at Lotakor to commission the facilities, said USAID partnership with the MOH and other stakeholders have improved access to quality services and also reduced preventable child and maternal deaths.

She expressed gratitude to the communities for their collaboration adding that interventions driven by local communities could improve the health system and "ultimately move Ghana towards its vision of self-reliance".

Madam Cromer said the CHPS zones would end the dilemma of pregnant women being transported on motorbikes over long distances in search of health care, and asked the people to help maintain the facilities.

She commended community health workers for their commitment to duty in the face of minimal resources.

Dr Timothy Letsa, the Volta Regional Director of Health Services, said the institutional maternal mortality ratio in the region stood at 161 per 100,000 live births and that well-resourced CHPS zones hold the key to curbing the situation.

He said CHPS accounted for 60 per cent immunization coverage in three years, and that although 420 of the Region’s 684 CHPS zones were functional, very few had trained Community Health Officers and Management Committees, a situation affecting health delivery.

Dr Letsa said eight more CHPS compounds would be constructed in the Region in 2018, and that the Heath Service would continue to ensure the success of such initiatives.

Dr Koku Awoonor, Director, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, GHS said the Service would provide a CHPS compound for every 3,000 inhabitants and that the Assemblies would be engaged on the initiative.

Madam Enyonam Katapu, Senior Community Health Nurse at the Lotakor CHPS compound, told the GNA that the facility served 36 communities with three health workers.

GNA