A deserted nurses’ quarters for health workers at the Sumbrungu Health Centre in the Bolgatanga Municipality in Upper East Region due to its dilapidated state has been refurbished.
This follows a Ghana News Agency (GNA) news report in May, 2020, drawing the attention of Mr Isaac Adongo, Member of Parliament for the Bolgatanga Central to support in rehabilitating the facility through his share of Common Fund.
The leadership of the health facility and the Bolgatanga Municipal Health Directorate of Ghana Health Service said the rehabilitation work started in 2020 after the GNA news report which work was completed last quarter of 2022.
The leadership and staff did not only express happiness at the rehabilitation of the quarters but also commended the GNA for bringing the plight of staff and state of the facility to the attention of authorities.
Mr Stephen Bordotsiah, Bolgatanga Municipal Health Director, said staff were allocated the facility to live in to assist in healthcare delivery, especially at night.
He said the rehabilitation of the facility was a relief as it enabled critical health workers to be available to assist in emergency cases, especially at night instead of referring most of the cases to the regional hospital.
“With the current economic challenges when fuel prices reached the highest point in the country, it affected staff a lot because staff were spending huge sums on transport commuting from Bolgatanga to the health centre and becoming unbearable for staff and that affected service delivery a lot,” he said.
The Municipal Health Director commended the MP for responding to the issue and appealed for more accommodation facilities to be provided to house more health workers there to improve health service delivery.
When the Ghana News Agency visited the facility before its refurbishment, the health workers had deserted the facility and described it as a death trap and above all the quarters was not only small to house all the health workers posted there but was in a deplorable state posing danger to those housed there.
The GNA observed that the walls and floors of the facility had several cracks and parts of the roofs damaged while the woods and ceiling were rotten with rainwater collected in the rooms.
As a result staff started commuting from their various houses to the Health Centre when on duty, creating stress on them and also affected service delivery at the facility.
The Health Centre serves more than 13,000 people in Sumbrungu and records an average of 60 attendants daily throughout most parts of the year and 80 to 100 attendants daily in September 2022 alone.