Health Minister inaugurates polyclinic for Oduman

The Minister of Health, Mr Kwaku Agyemang-Manu, has inaugurated one of five new polyclinics that the government has constructed in the Greater Accra Region.

The five polyclinics are being constructed at a total cost of €13.5 million.

Inaugurating the polyclinic at Oduman, a suburb of Ablekuma in the Ga West municipality, the minister said the other four — the Bortianor Polyclinic in the Ga South municipality, the Municipal Polyclinic in the Ada West District, the Ashaiman Polyclinic in the Ashaiman Municipality and the Ogbojo Polyclinic in the Adentan

Municipality — would be inaugurated by the close of next week.

Work on the projects started in May 2017.

Capacity

Each of the facilities has 30-bed capacity wards, a simple operation theatre, a laboratory, an X-ray department, a pharmacy, a counselling room, a cold room and two staff bungalows.

They were designed to provide services for ear, nose and throat; maternity, family planning, surgery, paediatric care, general consultations and outpatient cases.

Mr Agyeman-Manu said the provision of such facilities was part of the government’s efforts to deliver the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and prioritising primary health care for all.

He said all the five polyclinics had been well equipped to meet the health needs of the beneficiary communities to reduce the burden on, particularly, tertiary facilities.

“People will not have to walk to the big hospitals all the time to seek care for conditions that can easily be taken care of at the primary level. If there is the need to refer any case to a higher facility, the doctors in charge will do that,” he said.

Mr Agyeman-Manu said the ministry and its stakeholders had declared zero tolerance for maternal and neonatal deaths and bad customer relations, and had, therefore, given the desired orientation to staff towards that goal.

That, he said, could be achieved because it had been done at the Shai Osudoku Hospital.

Mr Agyeman-Manu appealed to residents to take advantage of the facility and promised that the roads leading to the hospital would be fixed soon.

Observations

Indeed, the untarred roads leading to the polyclinic were riddled with potholes, the Daily Graphic observed.

The bumpy and muddy nature of the roads marred the excitement of the residents of Oduman, and although they applauded speakers at the inauguration, there were intermittent shouts from the audience for authorities to get the road fixed.

Some young men even suggested that they would have preferred that their roads were fixed to the provision of any other infrastructure.

NHIS

The Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Anthony Nsiah-Asare, said the facility would operate on the National Health Insurance Scheme, and appealed to all residents to either enrol onto the scheme or renew their registration.

He said the GHS, for its part, was supporting the government to ensure a healthy population through quality primary health care, which prioritised prevention.

He, therefore, appealed to the beneficiaries to walk into the facility at any time for general and regular check-ups.

The Medical Director of the polyclinic, Mr David Donkor, religious, traditional and community leaders took turns to express gratitude to the government for the facility, which, they said, would go a long way to improve upon the health of the beneficiary communities.

Writer’s email doreen.andoh@graphic.com.gh