The Kwahu Afram Plains District Health Directorate of the Ghana Health Service has expressed concerns over the high prevalence of anaemia among pregnant women and an increase in still births.
According to the Health Directorate, almost all health facilities in the District continue to record increasing cases of anaemia among pregnant women in their third trimester.
The Health Directorate indicated that health facilities in Ekye Amanfrom and Forifori for instance recorded 79.4% and 64.1% anaemia case among pregnant women at 36 weeks of gestation respectively.
According to the Kwahu Afram Plains South District Health Director, Mr. Richard Essien, the directorate is deploying strategies including establishment of pregnancy schools in health facilities for education on proper dieting during pregnancy to reduce the iron deficiency.
Mr. Essien noted that the Kwahu Afram Plains South District with population of 74,000, continues to struggle for accessibility to quality healthcare due to lack of a District Hospital.
“Currently there are 36 health facilities including 29 CHPs and 6 health centers as well as one private facility in the district. Most of the facilities are however in deplorable state. Inadequate critical staff also continue to inhibit quality healthcare.”
Mr. Richard Essien
Inadequate logistics for healthcare
Mr. Richard Essien, averred that there is inadequate medical logistics, vehicles and motorbikes to work in the hard to reach communities in the district. He stated that not every facility in the district has a motorbike in order to move the services to other communities.
“Afram Plains South is one of the deprived communities in Ghana. Deprived in the sense that we occupy a very large land mark size of about 16 % of the region land mass and for that matter with scattered population and island communities. It has been very challenging the kind of terrain we working in, you need strong manpower, you need committed staff and most importantly strong motorbikes to undertake these activities. But these have been challenges. We have weak motorbikes, only 44% of our motorbikes are within 5 years and these are even few.”
Mr. Richard Essien
Mr. Essien noted that another biggest challenge is the infrastructure. He posited that although the assembly is constructing some CHPs compound, they still have a good number in bad state.
“Some of the facilities requires major renovation, some in temporal structures, single rooms and the rest and also we have some of our facilities without electricity and network”.
Mr. Richard Essien
Due to inadequate staff, Mr. Essien disclosed that the District Health Directorate has been engaging the services of volunteers in the communities to augment staff strength in the district.
“These volunteers were rewarded for their selfless services during a recent Annual Performance Review meeting of the district.”
Mr. Richard Essien
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