The chiefs and people of Joma and nearby communities in the Ga West Municipality have given the government a three-month ultimatum to refurbish and commission an abandoned CHPS compound in the area.

Women in labour often have to be driven on bumpy roads to health facilities located in the heart of the capital, Accra, for deliveries because of a lack of health facility in the community.

However, a Community-based Health Planning Services (CHPS) compound in the community has been shut for months.

Some women have died while being moved from Joma to the health facilities in Accra central.

The gravity of the situation forced the Presbyterian Church in the community to open up its doors for anti-natal services.

But after playing the benevolent role for the community for over two years, the church has ordered the discontinuation of the premises as a health facility.

The church has since taken steps to evict staff of the Ghana Health Service from the church premises.

The situation has dealt a heavy blow to expectant mothers. They now have to access healthcare at either Oduman or Amasaman which are located many miles away from the community.

For these mother it will be a happy day when the government commissions the CHPS compound for use.

Elizabeth Deku is a mother of two but is expecting her third child.

She fears the stress she goes through following the shutting up of the Presby church premises and the absence of anti-natal could affect the baby.

Elizabeth’s sentiments resonate with many pregnant women in this area.

Another 25-year-old woman who is six months pregnant says she lost her first pregnancy in December last year because of the absence of a health facility.

Rotting away

So when community health nurses were posted to the densely populated Joma by the Ghana Health Service, residents played their part by donating the land for the CHPS compound. The health facility is what now stands idle, rotting away.

The ceiling of the CHPS compound is fast peeling off and the nets used on the windows have worn out.

The facility which was intended to save human lives has now become a safe haven for livestock. Remnants of their faeces can be seen all over the facility.

That sight, according to the women in this community, saddens their hearts.

Residents blame the assembly delay to the commission of the facility for the healthcare problems in Joma.

Critical

Healthcare has always been one of the foremost concerns of the United Nations.

So SDG 3 is dedicated to delivering quality health and well-being. Point 3.1 on that goal projects to “reduce the global maternal mortality ratio to less than seventy per hundred thousand live births.”

Point 3.2 on the same goal seeks to ‘end preventable deaths of newborns and children under five years of age, with all countries aiming to reduce neonatal mortality to as low as twelve per one thousand live births and under-5 mortality to at least twenty-five per one thousand live births by 2030.”

Health Directorate in the Municipality has declined to comment on the matter.

Meanwhile, JoyNews sources say the facility has not been operational because there has not been a budgetary allocation for medical supplies.