Dabor Health Centre lacks basic facilities - Patients sit on bare floor
The Health Centre at Dabor in the Wa West District of the Upper West Region lacks the basic requirement to operate effectively.
A visit by the Daily Graphic revealed the deplorable state it operated in and the quality of care offered in its quest to deliver healthcare services to the people.
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The community of Dabor, a major town well noted for trading and commercial activities situated along the Ghana-Burkina Faso border has a large population and catchment area comprising the indigenous people and foreigners, mostly Burkinabe.
Inadequate space
The Dabor Health Centre was elevated to its present state in June 2020 from one of the earliest Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) and is still operating in the same three-room block. As such, the centre does not have adequate space for the various units and departments which are required of a functional health centre.
The major health problems of the area are malaria, hernia, bilharzia, typhoid, skin diseases, cholera, cough and childhood diseases.
Apart from that, it is staffed by four nurses who work under very trying conditions and a midwife who is at present pregnant so she is unavailable to offer her services. Although, the facility has electricity and potable water, it is poorly equipped with medical tools and the most disturbing problem is the lack of basic furniture.
Patients either have to bring their own chairs from home or sit on the floor to be attended to. Also disturbing is the inability to access telecommunication networks in the area.
A resident of the community, Ms Agnes Yinye, said patients have to sit or lie on the bare floor before being attended to by health officials. She said the facility also did not have a complete set of delivery tools such as sterilising equipment and drugs.
Ms Yinye disclosed that most often patients including pregnant women were referred to the Dorimon Health Centre, a distance of 11 kilometres, but due to the bad nature of the road, most of them refused to go and relied on chemical sellers for their health needs.
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She said those who attempted to visit the Dorimon Health Centre went through enormous discomfort on the road.
No maternity ward
“Apart from the chemical sellers, we also have the indigenous healers such as herbalists and pastors who move about. Where these happen in some instances, they have left disastrous consequences,” she said.
Another resident, Mr James Belinko, said because there was no Maternity Ward at Dabor, newly delivered women were not detained for the required 24 hours after delivery before being discharged.
According to the Assembly Member of the Dabor Electoral Area, Mr Barnabas Gaazienye, various appeals to the Wa West District Assembly have yielded no results. Mr Gaazienye also mentioned the deplorable state of the road network linking other towns and especially the one leading to the Dabor Health Centre that “becomes very unpassable during the rainy season thus affecting referral of patients to other health facilities”.
The Dabo Electoral Area comprises communities such as Mwaatanga, Kussale, Yipaala and Daku. The rest are Kangouli, Siiraa, Bilang, Moraazu and Daalongyiri.
The assembly member, therefore, appealed to the government to come to their aid since the area was a commercial centre serving about 9,000 people in its catchment area.