‘Upgrade Kpassa Health Centre to a polyclinic’
The management of the Kpassa Health Centre in the Volta Region has appealed to the Ministry of Health (MoH) and the government to upgrade the facility into a polyclinic while steps are being taken to establish a district hospital.
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The Medical Assistant at the facility, Mr Daniel Donkor, who made the appeal, said irrespective of its current status, it could not perform certain crucial functions to save lives.
"By our current status as a health centre, we cannot perform certain crucial functions, including storage of blood and major operations, and provide critical care for patients," he said.
He made the call at a sod-cutting ceremony for the construction of a nurses' quarters and a water project for the centre last Thursday.
The Nkwanta North District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr Martin Kudor Kidibi, led a delegation from the Social Investment Fund (SIF) to perform the ceremony.
Challenges
Mr Donkor, among other things, cited the lack of drugs and non-payment of claims by the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) as major challenges facing the facility.
The District Health Administrator, Mr Delali Agbesi, said the lack of snake serum had led to many deaths that could have been prevented.
"The people of Nkwanta North are predominantly farmers and in the line of their farming activities, they are bitten by snakes. But most of the time we are unable to deal with the situation and patients have to be sent to other districts, causing many to die in the process," he said.
He said the centre lacked medical equipment and had not seen any major renovation since it started operations over a decade ago.
"We continue to lobby suppliers for items all the time; but they are fed up with us, particularly so as we always give them excuses for not being able to settle what we owe them," Mr Agbesi added.
Nkwanta North DCE
Mr Kidibi, for his part, said steps would be taken to engage the MoH and the government on the need to improve health care in the district, adding that the assembly was committed to the government's policy of extending quality health care to every part of the country.
