Access to good quality healthcare in Ghana, and by extension, globally, is by no means terms, the most valuable commodity every person can get in life.
It was a right that every person ought to enjoy because illness was inevitable in human existence, and once a person was ill, access to the right medication could be a major remedy, aside from beseeching God’s healing power through prayers.
Despite the importance of good quality and timely healthcare access to human existence, access to this basic life necessity in some rural communities remained a privilege rather than a right, due to the difficulty in accessing the service.
The situation could be described as “survival of the fittest” due to the unavailability of health facilities in those communities and the hurdles involved in accessing other communities.
The vulnerable people - pregnant women, children, persons with disabilities and the aged were the worst affected groups of people in the healthcare access challenge.
For instance, pregnant women in some rural communities had to be transported on a tricycle truck (motorking) over bumpy roads a long distance to health facilities in other communities for delivery.
One of the affected communities, in the timely healthcare access challenge, was the Juagluu community in the Wa West District.
Residents of this community had to trek over 7 km to the Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) at Meteu community for primary healthcare services.
However, for antenatal care and skilled delivery services, they had to travel about 10 km to the Gurungu health centre, and in the worst-case scenario, they had to travel close to 20km to the District Hospital in Wechiau.
Some residents of the Jagluu community told Info Radio in an interview that their plight worsened during the rainy season as the road further deteriorated.
Some women in that community expressed frustration about the ordeal they go through in accessing maternal healthcare services which they say had posed a serious health risk to their lives.
I was pregnant for eight months, and two weeks and had abdominal pains. I was carried on the motor-king through this bad road to Gurungu and was referred from Gurungu to Wechiau.
“We didn’t reach anywhere and I delivered, the baby died but if we had a health facility here maybe they could have taken care of me there and I wouldn’t have lost the baby”, Madam Ajara Issah, a resident, lamented.
Many other women in that community went on that life-threatening journey in given life, a natural requirement and obligation by God/Allah to procreate and fill the earth.
Madam Fatima Salam and Madam Lawrencia Kuudomo, also residents of that community, went through similar challenges where Madam Salam lost her pregnancy while Madam Kuudomo delivered on the way to the health facility.
To the community members, he who had the means and strength was the one who could access healthcare services. This was because of the long distance, poor state of the road and difficulty in getting a means of transport.
They said some of them relied on herbs to cure some conditions within the community and that resulted in needless deaths.
They attributed the death of about five children in the community within a span of two months to the lack of a health facility in the community.
Madam Fatima Salam also expressed hope that the availability of a health facility in the community would help prevent unwanted pregnancies, especially among teenage girls through access to Family Planning services.
Meanwhile, Mr Moses Baapile, the Assembly Member of the Jagluu Electoral Area, told Info Radio that he had written several letters to the Wa West District Assembly for intervention with a health facility but his request was yet to be materialised.
He explained that the community had converted a classroom into a health facility and a nurse was assigned to provide basic health education to the community members while they appealed for a permanent health facility.
The challenge in healthcare access was not peculiar to the Jagluu community. Residents of Tendoma, a community also in the Wa West District had to face a similar ordeal in accessing healthcare services at Poyentanga.
Pregnant women in that community sometimes trek on foot about 10km to Poyentanga Health Center to access both antenatal and skilled delivery services.
Madam Cynthia Prokabo, who was in her first trimester of pregnancy, described the ordeal she went through to access antenatal care services at Poyentanga as a life-and-death matter.
“When I am to go to Poeyntanga for antenatal services, I have to rest on the road, at least three times or when I am lucky, I get a lift with a motorbike.
I suffered a lot before getting to Poyentanga and after that, I had to walk back home under a scorching sun”, she explained.
Mr Kakraba Yuodo, an elder of the Tendoma community, explained that the people in the community had taken maternal healthcare and institutional delivery very seriously saying, “We don’t allow a woman to deliver at home.”
He, however, said the lack of a health facility in the community was impeding their efforts in sustaining the gains made in institutional delivery since women in that community sometimes delivered on the road while trying to go to the facility at Poyentanga to deliver.
He recalled five women who delivered on the way to Poyentanga, which he said was a source of worry to them since those women could have lost their lives in the process.
Mr Benedict Ziem, the Assembly Member of the Poyentanga Electoral Area, acknowledged the challenges the people in that community were going through and appealed to benevolent individuals and institutions for a health facility for the community.
Meanwhile, in the Pigbengben community, also in the Wa West District, the residents appealed to the Wa West District Assembly to complete the health facility project in the community to help reduce their plight in accessing healthcare services, especially for pregnant women and children.
The District Assembly had constructed a health facility in the community about three years ago but it was yet to be furnished and put to use.
A visit to the community by Info Radio revealed that the virtually abandoned health facility was fast deteriorating with some of the doors falling apart and paint on the walls fading.
Some women in that community said they went through a great ordeal to access skill delivery and antenatal care services at the health centre at Vieri.
Madam Rukaya Mohammed, a resident, said pregnant women in this community trekked about 8 Km to Vieri for maternal healthcare services.
“By the time we move from here to Vieri, sometimes when you are not fortunate to get a motorking to transport you on time, you end up delivering on the way, there are instances the woman or baby die in the process and sometimes both of them die”, Madam Rukaya lamented
Madam Janet Dari Yaweh, another resident, explained that she developed complications because she was transported on a motor-king on a bumpy road and was referred from the Vieri Health Centre to a hospital in Wa where she was operated on.
She could not fathom why women in the Pigbengben community would go through that challenge in accessing healthcare services including skilled delivery at Vieri while the health facility was wasting in the community.
Mr Abraham Tam, also a resident, acknowledged the stress vulnerable people in the community went through in accessing healthcare services.
He explained that considering the dire need for a health facility in the community, they initiated a process in 2019 to construct a health facility for the community before the District Assembly intervened.
Mr Tam lamented the current state of the health facility and appealed to the District Chief Executive to help complete the facility and put it to use.
Meanwhile, Ghana as a signatory to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was racing to achieve Goal 3 which focused on ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages by 2030.
Target one of that Goal seeks to “reduce the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100,000 live births” by 2030.
Also, target two of the Goal focuses on ending preventable deaths of newborns and children under 5 years of age, with all countries aiming to reduce neonatal mortality to at least as low as 12 per 1,000 live births and under-5 mortality to at least as low as 25 per 1,000 live births by 2030.
However, disparities in access to healthcare services, particularly in rural communities like Jagluu, Tendoma and Pigbengben communities in the Wa West District, would stifle Ghana’s efforts in achieving those targets.
The government of Ghana and its development partners, concerned Non-governmental Organisations and individuals ought to double their efforts in ensuring timely access to quality healthcare services for all irrespective of one’s geographical location.
It was worth nothing that at the district level, strong collaboration between the District Assembly, the District Health Directorate and the Member of Parliament was necessary to ensure timely access to quality healthcare by the citizens.
Madam Vida Diorotey, the Wa West District Chief Executive, told Info Radio that the District Assembly was aware of the health access challenges in some communities within the district but that lack of funds was impeding the Assembly’s efforts to mitigate those challenges.
Talking on the Pigbegben health facility, Madam Diorotey indicated that plans were in place to operationalize the facility as soon as possible.
“We are in talks with the contractor to supply the equipment to the Pigbengben CHPS compound...”, Madam Diorotey indicated.
Meanwhile, when contacted to speak on the healthcare access situation in the district, Madam Cecilia Kakraba, the Wa West District Director of Health Services, said she was not available to talk about the issues.
The challenge of healthcare access in these and many other communities reflects Charles Darwin’s philosophy of evolution, “survival of the fittest”.
Darwin’s philosophy suggests that organisms that best adjust to their environment are the most successful in surviving and reproducing.
That means, the people in the affected communities are virtually left to their fate to go through a natural selection process and those who best adjust to the challenge of healthcare access will survive.
This report was produced by Info Radio in partnership with the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development, CDD-Ghana as part of the “I am Aware” project implementation in the Wa West District.
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