Nkwanta (O/R), Nov 30, GNA – Mr Emmanuel Agbodogli, Disease Control Officer, Nkwanta South Health Directorate, has urged members of the various Community Health Management Committees (CHMCs) to ensure that quality health service delivery was achieved.
He said the CHMCs were an intermediate committee that worked between health facilities and the community members, which called for commitment in the execution of their tasks.
Mr Agbodogli said this when he addressed participants at a workshop to reorient CHMC members from Odumase, Kecheibi and Ofosu communities in the Nkwanta South Municipal and Kabonwule, Azua and Tinjasi communities in Nkwanta North District on Maternal and Child Health, Nutrition, Malaria prevention, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) at Nkwanta.
He said the Committees were important in Community-based Health Planning and Service (CHPS) implementation at various health facilities.
The Officer said the Committees met monthly to discuss issues concerning the health facilities, plan activities with Community Health Officers (CHOs)and discussed challenges such as CHOs outreach.
He said the CHMCs were also responsible to ensure that scheduled or planned outreach programmes by CHOs were effectively carried out while they also put in measures to keep the various CHPS compound tidy.
Mr Agbodogli said the Committees also ensured the maintenance of health facilities, support, monitor and reward community health volunteers’ activities as a form of motivation in whatever they had done.
He noted that CHMCs also supported outbreak investigation, referral cases, community registration, mass drug distribution, and provided security at the CHPS compounds.
The Officer called on members of CHMC to continue to liaise with their communities to be able to identify and solve problems that served as hindrances to delivering quality health service to community members.
Mr Richard Anane Adortse, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, People for Health (P4H), said there was the need for community members to be abreast with appropriate ways of seeking medical help which was a duty of the CHMCs.
He said CHMCs were recognised groups by the Ghana Health Service while the ‘People for Health’ project was aimed at continuing to provide support for community members in quality health service delivery.
Mr Richard Asante, a Health Promotion Officer, Nkwanta South Municipal, sensitized participants on family planning, its benefits, modern family planning methods as well as side effects of family planning.
Committee members prepare action plans on sensitisation activities in their catchment areas on maternal and child health, nutrition, malaria prevention and WASH in the Municipality.
People for Health (P4H) is aimed at ensuring improved access to quality health service delivery for citizens in 20 districts selected from five regions.
The project seeks to strengthen the organisational and institutional capacities of government and civil society organisations (CSOs) for mutual accountability in health, HIV, water and sanitation, and nutrition policy formulation and implementation.
It is a five-year project being implemented by a consortium of three organisations led by SEND-Ghana, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), with Penplusbytes and the Ghana News Agency as members, and sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
The target regions include Greater Accra, Eastern, Northern, Volta and Oti.
GNA