Ghana builds 1,410 CHPS
Mr Alex Segbefia, Minister of Health, has announced that in collaboration with development partners and other stakeholders 1,410 Community Based Health Planning and Services have been constructed.
He said JICA had provided 64 CHPS compounds in the Upper West Region and Korean Foundation for International Health Care was also constructing CHPS compounds in the Volta Region.
The United States Agency for International Development through systems for health, planned to build 55 CHPS compounds and renovate 155 old compounds in the Northern and Volta Regions.
Mr Segbefia made those known at the inauguration of 64 CHPS Compounds and the launch of the CHPS Policy at Loho in the Nadowli-Kaleo District.
He said the Department for International Development of the United Kingdom had committed to build 10 CHPS compounds across the country.
The Health Minister said so far, the Ministry had trained more than 15,900 community health officers who were providing basic health services to CHPS communities in Ghana.
He said the efforts had contributed to a significant reduction in child deaths from 111 deaths per 1000 live births in 2003 to 82 deaths per 1000 live births in 2011; and maternal deaths 740 per 100,000 live births in 1990 to 350 per 100,000 live births in 2010.
The proportion of out-patient attendance by insured clients increased from 55.81 per cent in 2008 to 82.11 per cent in 2011.
On the Policy, he said, the Ministry had undertaken extensive reviews of the CHPS strategy to help deal with the various challenges identified over the years.
The challenges which included the varying interpretation and understanding of the CHPs concept, lack of funds for compound construction and service delivery, poor coordination across the delivery chain and poor community mobilisation and ownership.
Mr Segbefia said the revised policy was to ensure that ambiguities were avoided and pave way for maintaining a high adherence to standards across the delivery chain.
He said considering the importance of partnerships in the implementation of CHPS, the need for a common understanding of CHPS by all stakeholders could not be overemphasised.
Without a common understanding, each stakeholder would contribute according to their understanding which would negatively impact on coordination, hence the need for the policy to guide the implementation process, he said.
The CHPS Policy covers five general principles and these are: the duty of care and minimum package of services; human resource for CHPS, infrastructure and equipment for CHPS, financing, supervision, monitoring and evaluation.
Recognising the crucial role of communities in the success of the concept, was the reason why the policy emphasised on community participation, empowerment, ownership and volunteerism as a critical elements of CHPS.
The Policy also defines standards for CHPS compound and the accompanying list of equipment and furnishing and other amenities, and directs that all subsequent CHPS compound construction complies with the standards.
Source: GNA