Using torchlights for deliveries

 ...Stories of Abease and Kayereso Health Centres

It was around 10:45pm in the evening, when one expectant woman in labour was rushed to the Abease Health Centre, which is by far the nearest health post from a distant village of about 20 kilometers.

The midwife upon seeing the stress the woman was going through especially after being transported on a motorbike on the virtually poor road network, examined her immediately and conducted the delivery with the aid of a torchlight.

Madam Comfort Konadu, Midwife in-charge at the health facility for the past nine years, narrates the ordeal they go through using torchlights and sometimes mobile phone lights to conduct deliveries at night and at odd hours, because lights are not in the community or at the health facility.

She recounts how challenging it was to use torchlights to conduct normal deliveries and sometimes managing deliveries which are usually referral cases from trained Traditional Birth Attendants in surrounding villages.

The Abease Health Centre, though the biggest health post in the area, is not the only one facing such challenges, as Kamanpa and Cherambo CHPS Compounds all in the Pru District of the Brong Ahafo Region faces similar challenges.

Another challenge Madam Konadu noted the facility was facing was delayed in payment by the National Insurance Authority for services the facility rendered, as well as the rising operational cost and maintenance of the only pickup for the Centre which does all the rounds, including transporting emergency cases to Yeji and other areas.

She said there was need for an ambulance, more critical staff including midwives at the facility and the expansion of the maternity ward, which is overcrowded, and appealed for adequate water supply to the health centre and the community, since the only borehole at the facility was overused because it was shared with members of the community.

Madam Konadu noted that due to increase in Antenatal Clinic attendance and deliveries at the health facility, associated with surge in  referrals and efforts of trained Traditional Birth Attendants (TBA) in surrounding communities, there was need for more midwives to help manage the work load. She said even with the effort her staff and that of Madam Juliana Mensah, a 57-year old TBA attached to the facility, there was need for more hands at the facility.

Asked how she preserves and stores vaccines and other drugs without electric power, she said they had arranged with Prang Health Centre about 30 kilometers from Abease, which has light to store them and later collect for use.

Meanwhile, the Kayereso Health Centre in the East Gonja District about 12kilometers from Salaga is also facing similar challenges of using torchlights to conduct deliveries.

Madam Agatha Atia, in-charge of the Kayereso facility with two staff noted the challenges they also go through to conduct deliveries at night with torchlights, and noted that even though the community was hooked unto the national grid mid this year, the facility was yet to be connected.

She said there were virtually no funds to run the facility since the NHIA was yet to reimburse the facility for services it rendered for the last six months, and added that because the facility had no water pregnant women had to carry their own water to the facility.

Madam Atia commended the invaluable cooperation and contribution of the 19 TBAs from surrounding communities, who were recently trained in March, for their roles to improve the health of expectant mothers and infants in the communities they operate in.

She noted the apparent difficulty they conduct they conduct outreach programmes to communities, especially without their own means of transport to communities in the sub district, and appealed to the Ghana Health Service, and other benevolent organization to come to their aid to purchase motorbikes to help them in their rounds.

To address the challenge expectant mothers in labour go through to get the health centre, Madam Atia together with the TBAs, opinion leaders mooted the idea to purchase a ‘motor king’ a tricycle motor to help transport pregnant women in labour to the health facility or nearest one in Salaga should there be complication to help save mother and infant.

So far, she reports that people in the various communities have contributed about GHc 500 towards the purchase of the motor king which is valued at about GHc 5,000. She appeals for support to help purchase the motor king to help the easy transportation of pregnant women in labour to health facilities.  

For people in these areas, access to quality healthcare will remain a luxury, even though it is supposed to be a right and a necessity for all Ghanaians. It will remain a luxury because of the cost involved in even transporting patients to the nearest health facility with bad road networks and other peculiar challenges associated to their areas.

*The Health Centres at Abease                 * A health Assistant attending to a client

*Madam Comfort Konadu (in white uniform) interacting with some staff

* (Above) Madam Agatha Atia interacting with

some of the TBAs the Clinic (below

By KwesiYirenkyiBoateng

  

Using torchlights for deliveries:

Stories of Abease and Kayereso Health Centres

It was around 10:45pm in the evening, when one expectant woman in labour was rushed to the Abease Health Centre, which is by far the nearest health post from a distant village of about 20 kilometers.

The midwife upon seeing the stress the woman was going through especially after being transported on a motorbike on the virtually poor road network, examined her immediately and conducted the delivery with the aid of a torchlight.

Madam Comfort Konadu, Midwife in-charge at the health facility for the past nine years, narrates the ordeal they go through using torchlights and sometimes mobile phone lights to conduct deliveries at night and at odd hours, because lights are not in the community or at the health facility.

She recounts how challenging it was to use torchlights to conduct normal deliveries and sometimes managing deliveries which are usually referral cases from trained Traditional Birth Attendants in surrounding villages.

The Abease Health Centre, though the biggest health post in the area, is not the only one facing such challenges, as Kamanpa and Cherambo CHPS Compounds all in the Pru District of the Brong Ahafo Region faces similar challenges.

Another challenge Madam Konadu noted the facility was facing was delayed in payment by the National Insurance Authority for services the facility rendered, as well as the rising operational cost and maintenance of the only pickup for the Centre which does all the rounds, including transporting emergency cases to Yeji and other areas.

She said there was need for an ambulance, more critical staff including midwives at the facility and the expansion of the maternity ward, which is overcrowded, and appealed for adequate water supply to the health centre and the community, since the only borehole at the facility was overused because it was shared with members of the community.

Madam Konadu noted that due to increase in Antenatal Clinic attendance and deliveries at the health facility, associated with surge in  referrals and efforts of trained Traditional Birth Attendants (TBA) in surrounding communities, there was need for more midwives to help manage the work load. She said even with the effort her staff and that of Madam Juliana Mensah, a 57-year old TBA attached to the facility, there was need for more hands at the facility.

Asked how she preserves and stores vaccines and other drugs without electric power, she said they had arranged with Prang Health Centre about 30 kilometers from Abease, which has light to store them and later collect for use.

Meanwhile, the Kayereso Health Centre in the East Gonja District about 12kilometers from Salaga is also facing similar challenges of using torchlights to conduct deliveries.

Madam Agatha Atia, in-charge of the Kayereso facility with two staff noted the challenges they also go through to conduct deliveries at night with torchlights, and noted that even though the community was hooked unto the national grid mid this year, the facility was yet to be connected.

She said there were virtually no funds to run the facility since the NHIA was yet to reimburse the facility for services it rendered for the last six months, and added that because the facility had no water pregnant women had to carry their own water to the facility.

Madam Atia commended the invaluable cooperation and contribution of the 19 TBAs from surrounding communities, who were recently trained in March, for their roles to improve the health of expectant mothers and infants in the communities they operate in.

She noted the apparent difficulty they conduct they conduct outreach programmes to communities, especially without their own means of transport to communities in the sub district, and appealed to the Ghana Health Service, and other benevolent organization to come to their aid to purchase motorbikes to help them in their rounds.

To address the challenge expectant mothers in labour go through to get the health centre, Madam Atia together with the TBAs, opinion leaders mooted the idea to purchase a ‘motor king’ a tricycle motor to help transport pregnant women in labour to the health facility or nearest one in Salaga should there be complication to help save mother and infant.

So far, she reports that people in the various communities have contributed about GHc 500 towards the purchase of the motor king which is valued at about GHc 5,000. She appeals for support to help purchase the motor king to help the easy transportation of pregnant women in labour to health facilities.  

For people in these areas, access to quality healthcare will remain a luxury, even though it is supposed to be a right and a necessity for all Ghanaians. It will remain a luxury because of the cost involved in even transporting patients to the nearest health facility with bad road networks and other peculiar challenges associated to their areas.

*The Health Centres at Abease                 * A health Assistant attending to a client

*Madam Comfort Konadu (in white uniform) interacting with some staff

* (Above) Madam Agatha Atia interacting with

some of the TBAs the Clinic (below