Two health facilities built and commissioned two years ago, to serve hundreds of poor locals living in the Tamale North Constituency, and abandoned by local authorities, have received a cache of health delivery items from the MP Alhassan Suhuyini.
The health centers at Kulaa and Gbirmani were commissioned in December 2016, after an alarming rise in maternal and infant mortality in the catchment area where residents travel several kilometers on poor road infrastructure to treat even a stomach upset.
The poorly constructed buildings were handed over with only two wooden benches and desks, without electricity power, medical items and supplies.
Pregnant patients were treated on the floor and only prominent individuals in the communities were allowed to receive treatment on the wooden benches. Nurses posted there have been doing almost nothing due to lack of first aid kit.
The facility at Kulaa was always swamped by floodwaters, making it inaccessible during rainy season, and the one at Gbirmani partly defaced by bat droppings.
Residents are cut off during this season from accessing healthcare in big communities and towns, forcing delivery on unskilled practitioners and traditional healers.
After barrage of lamentation from residents, the MP Suhuyini responded by funding a power supply to the facilities and now followed up again with the medical items, worth over GH50,000. The items donated to the CHPs facilities include: TV sets, Delivery Beds, Theatre Lumps, Benches for ANC patients, chairs, Refrigerators to keep vital vaccines and drugs, Gas cylinder and burners, beds, Staple machines and calculators.
At the donation ceremony held in both villages on Friday, Alhassan Suhuyini said the intervention was to strengthen and improve the health needs of the people in the area. The MP told journalists that what was more crucial to him about the intervention was not to boast about it monetary value but how to ensure the people enjoy the full benefit of the facilities that had been left to rot.
“Sometimes when you concentrate on the money you are quick to begin to think of what other uses that money could be put to instead of looking at health of the people, how it will improve their health and leads to them being good farmers this season without being knocked down by malaria, that is what I want us to concentrate on more,” the MP stated.
The MP said he was hopeful the items will now provide a comfortable environment to both staff and patients for effective healthcare service. He placed the security of the items in the hands of community leaders and reminded local health officials to keep good maintenance culture. 
He acknowledged the Ghana Health Service efforts in the procurement process and urged strong collaboration between state agencies including the District Assemblies and Members of Parliament, in order to expedite the provision of amenities to the people, especially those living in rural areas, where basic amenities such as good drinking water is still a luxury.
Alhassan Suhuyini has donated to more than five health centers in the constituency. In December last year, the MP built a Reproductive and Child Health Centre for residents of Choggu.
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM/Eliasu Tanko
