The First Lady, Mrs Rebecca Akufo-Addo, has cut sod for the construction of a 16-bed fully equipped healthcare facility, at Ashalaja and Kwame Anum, in the Obom Sub-district of the Ga South Municipality, in the Greater Accra Region.
The project is to complement the old primary healthcare centre at the Obom-Sub–district.
Cutting
the sod for commencement of work, Mrs Akuffo-Addo expressed worry that there
was only one healthcare centre for about 82.00082,000
people in the Obom sub Sub-district.
She
said the citizenry needed adequate access to quality healthcare, irrespective
of where he
or shethey lived, adding that the situation
was unacceptable when the country was striving for universal healthcare for the
people.
Mrs Akufo-Addo stressed that every community deserved to have a preventive and curative healthcare centre with professionals.
HeShe
commended the Municipal Chief Executive of Ga South, Mr Joseph Stephen Nyarni,
for supporting the project.
Mrs Akufo-Addo urged health workers, who would be posted to the centre, to work tirelessly, and advised mothers to exclusively breastfeed their babies at least six months, to facilitate their (babies) growth.
On his part, Mr Nyarni said, the health centres were not adequate for a municipality with a population of about 330,00, adding that, Obom Sub-district alone had about 82,000 people, yet it was served by only one health centre and four Community-based Health and Planning Services (CHPS) compounds.
He said the only CHPS compound that served the people of Ashalaja and Kwame Anum and its environs, had been earmarked for demolition because it had become dilapidated, thereby affecting healthcare delivery.
Dr Charity Sarpong, the Regional Director of Health Services, said the project if completed would help increase access to healthcare.
She thanked Mrs Akufo-Addo for her contribution to the development of the area, particularly in the area of healthcare infrastructure, and Mr Nyarni for
handing over a–40–bed capacity female ward to Amanfro Polyclinic, at Kasoa.
From Daniel Amoo, Kwame Anum
