The residents of Jolinyiri in the Kojokperi South electoral area of the Daffiama Bussie Issa district have identified poor road networks as a key challenge against quality healthcare delivery in the community.
The Jolinyiri community lacks a secondary facility, forcing residents to travel on a poor road to access secondary healthcare at Kojokperi or Issa Health Centre.
According to the residents, the Community-based Health Planning and Service (CHPS) Compound has no drugs; inadequate delivery beds and lack of benches for caretakers of patients are affecting the quality of healthcare delivery.
Speaking to Info Radio in the community, some residents pointed out that the poor road network affects timely access to health facilities when referred from the CHPS compound to Kojokperi or Issa.
One of the residents explained that it is even better to use a bicycle to Issa or Kojokperi to buy drugs for a sick relative than using a motorcycle due to the deplorable state of the road.
"We don't have a proper road, and it's very frustrating to use the current road to go to Jolinyiri or Issa to buy medicine for our sick relatives. If you're not careful, you might end up in an accident. Because of this, we prefer using bicycles instead of motorbikes."
According to the residents, the CHPS compound has only one delivery bed to its credit. The CHPS compound cannot deliver more than a woman at the same time as a result of the lack of delivery beds.
"I'm concerned about the shortage of delivery beds in the facility. The entire facility only has one delivery bed, so when there are multiple women in labor, one has to deliver on the floor or the nurses have to improvise."
Madam Abudi Kudiratu, a resident, mentioned that the poor road network adds more complications for pregnant women accessing secondary healthcare. She believes that duty bearers are deceiving them because they have been told that there are drugs in the facility, but they cannot find them when they go there for healthcare.
"When we go to the CHPS compound to deliver, and they ask us to go to Issa, it makes us sad because of the poor road network. It's only by God's grace that we are saved every time we travel on this road to Issa to deliver."
She observed that some women in Jolinyiri prefer to deliver at home because of the poor road network.
The Assembly Member for the area, Mr Bukari Saluu, noted that sometimes he has to provide drugs for the health staff but that is not enough. He thus appealed to the District Health Directorate to upgrade the CHPS compound to a Health Centre which could provide them with quality healthcare.
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