NABOCADO trains c’ttess to monitor health facilities at Wulugu

The Navrongo-Bolgatanga Diocesan Development Organisation (NABOCADO) of the Catholic Church, has trained monitoring and management committees in eleven health facilities and twenty schools in the Wulugu community in the North -East Region.

The capacity training programme under the Good Governance, Justice and Peace project of the Bishop Secretariat of the NABOCADO, is as part of efforts of the Diocese to ensure effective community participation and quality service delivery in the health and education units in the Diocese.

Speaking at the training sessions at the St Patrick Health Centre at Wulugu, on Saturday, the Director of Good Governance, Justice and Peace project,Mr Joseph Bangu, explained that the project with funding from the Hungary Helps Programme was aimed at empowering the committees with knowledge and skills to act as citizens monitoring groups and a linkage between the facilities and their respective communities for effective collaboration and improved service delivery.

Each Committee which comprised major stakeholders in the community, including the chief, women leader, youth leader, assembly member, staff of the facilities are charged with the responsibility of   monitoring , tracking  and demanding  quality service from the managers of the facilities, and to  report to the communities on the happenings at the facilities

The Director explained furtherthat the Hungary Helps Programme was a collective approach aimed at increasing and strengthening the infrastructure base in health and education, and service delivery through advocacy and capacity building.

“The Committees main function will be to periodically come and track the reimbursement of NHIS claims, number of beds, safe deliveries, state of the structure among other essential services so that at the end of it we collectively sit down and see how the facility is performing,” he added.

The Primary Healthcare Coordinator of the Diocesan Health Services, Mr Peter Akudugu Ayamba,  noted that NABODCADO and its partners had over the years contributed to improvement in health care delivery within the diocese especially in rural the communities.

“If you look at the location of the health facilities, you would realise that we are not there to compete with Ghana Health Service but we are complementing governments at providing essential services to hard-to-reach communities,” he stated.

Reverend Samuel Ngumah and Mr Theophilus Abolga, facilitators of the training urged members of the committees to avoid partisan politics and work to enhance the wellbeing of their people.

The Health Promotion Officer of the Ghana Health Service in charge of the West Mamprusi Municipality, Mr Bismarck Adu-Agyapong lauded NABOCADO and Hungary Helps Program for the training and said it would build cordial relationship between members of the communities and the service providers.

FROM SAMUEL AKAPULE, WULUGU