Tamvaar, (UW/R), March 18, GNA – Residents of Tamvaar, a community in the Wa West District, have appealed to government, Non-governmental Organisations, development partners and benevolent individuals to provide their the community with a health facility.
The community with about 700 inhabitants cannot boast of a health facility, which impedes timely access to health care services, especially for pregnant women and children.
Madam Yirwele Benyir, a resident of the community, told the Ghana News Agency in an interview that pregnant women and children had to trek several kilometers to Wechiau or Dorimon to access health care services.
She said, “Getting pregnant women to Wechiau is very difficult. Pregnant women cannot sit on a bicycle or motorbike.
“Sometimes, they deliver on the way before getting to the hospital. But if we have a health facility here all those problems will stop.”
Madam Benyir said it was a source of worry to them as they had to risk the deplorable state of security in the area to trek to the health facilities at night as access to vehicular transport in the community was also a challenge.
Madam Berser Yaayi, another resident, cited an instance where a man carried his pregnant wife to the Wechiau Hospital at night and was attacked and shot by an unknown assailant.
He added that though he managed to get the wife to the hospital he died as a result of the gunshot.
Madam Berser also cited instances where pregnant women delivered on the bare ground while trekking to the hospital at Wechiau due to the lack of a health facility in the community.
Mr Yussif Gizuure, the Assembly Member for the Baleofiiri Electoral Area, said the area made up of ten communities had no health facility which negatively affected timely access to healthcare services by the people in the area.
He said the Tamvaar community, which is one of the major market centres in the Wa West District, needed to have a health facility as people from all walks of life patronized that market and could fall sick at any point in time.
Mr Gizuure said he was working assiduously to ensure that the area gets a health facility and appealed to the Member of Parliament and the District Chief Executive of the area as well as benevolent NGOs and individuals to come to their aid.
Goal three of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) required member states to, among other things, ensure timely access to primary health care by all at all levels by 2030.
Mr Gizuure said though Ghana was implementing the Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) concept to improve access to primary health care, much still needed to be done to meet the SDGs target.
GNA