Over thirty health professionals in the Okaikwei North Municipality have ended a day’s capacity building training workshop on Community-Based Health Services and Planning (CHPS).
The workshops organised under the auspices of the Okaikwei North Municipal Health Directorate is expected to sharpen the skills of the nurses to deliver quality healthcare.
The program was also to afford the Community Health Officers (CHO’s) the skill to gather data which will inform health policies and equip them on the CHPS policy to upgrade their knowledge.
The event saw thirty-three nurses drawn from eight operational centers in the Municipality taking part in the workshop.
These include: Abeka, Fadama, Akweteyman, Nii Boi, Achimota, Alogbshie Abofu, Kisseman among others.
Delivering a paper, Mrs Charity Sikanku, a Public Health Nurse at the Regional Health Directorate noted that CHPS will work well in the community if the nurses understand the concept.
He said the concept among other things is meant to take health care to the doorsteps of the people in the community indicating that in times past, all health services were in the hospitals and people had to travel for it.
Mrs. Sikanku however, observed that the focus of most CHO’s are on pregnant women and children, leaving out the men and even the adolescents in the community.
The Regional Public Health Officer intimated that the CHO’s must educate the people to understand the concept stressing that if that is that done, admissions at the hospitals will be reduced.
She stated that even masking up is a challenge for some people because they don’t believe there is COVID-19 disease.
Mrs. Sikanku mentioned inadequate resources, non-delivery of services, inability to engage with the Municipal Assembly among others as some of the challenges facing the smooth implementation of CHPS
