The residents of Pigbengben, a farming community in the Wa West District, say they go through a grave challenge daily to access healthcare services while a newly constructed health facility in the community is left to rot. The District Assembly built the community health facility about three years ago but is yet to be furnished and used. A visit to the community by the Ghana News Agency (GNA) revealed that the abandoned health facility is fast deteriorating with some of the doors falling apart and the paint on the walls fading. Speaking in an interview with the GNA at the community, Madam Rukaya Mohammed, a resident, said they relied on the Vieri Health Centre of about 10 kilometers from the community for healthcare services. She said pregnant women, children and the aged were the worst affected groups of people in that community in terms of accessing healthcare services. 'Pregnant women in this community deliver at the Vieri Health Centre. Sometimes they deliver on the way to the health facility and if the woman is not fortunate, she loses the baby or she develops complications after delivering. This building (health facility) has been here for three years now, but we are not getting any benefit from it,' Madam Mohammed lamented. Madam Nafisa Yakubu, another resident, said the deplorable nature of the road linking Pigbengben community to Vieri had compounded their challenge in accessing timely skilled delivery services and antenatal services. 'Before I gave birth to one of my children, I was carried in a tricycle and by the time we got to Vieri Health Centre, I developed complications and could not deliver by myself. I was transferred to a hospital in Wa where I was operated on. If not by the grace of God, I would have lost my life or the baby. So, we are appealing to the District Assembly to complete the project for it to serve its intended purpose,' she explained. Madam Janet Dari Yaweh, also a resident, explained that she nearly lost her life while trying to access skilled delivery at the Health Cen tre at Vieri due to the bad state of the road and the distance from the Pigbengben community to Vieri. She expressed hope that if the health facility at the community is completed and in operation, she would not have gone through such a life-threatening challenge to access skilled delivery in another community. Mr Abraham Tam, a resident, acknowledged the stress vulnerable people in that community go through in accessing healthcare services, which he said necessitated the need for a health facility in that community. He explained that considering the dire need of the facility, the community initiated a process in 2019 to construct one before the District Assembly intervened. Mr Tam lamented that the current state of the facility was disheartening and appealed to the District Chief Executive (DCE), District Health Director and the Member of Parliament for the Wa West Constituency to provide the needed equipment for the facility to be operational. The residents also appealed to the District Assembly to has ten the completion of the health facility project in the community to ease their challenge in accessing healthcare services. When contacted, Madam Vida Diorotey, the Wa West DCE, told the GNA that the Assembly was in talks with the contractor to supply the equipment to the facility. 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 sought to reduce the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100,000 live births by 2030. Also, target two of the Goal focused 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 Pigbengben would st ifle Ghana's efforts in achieving these targets if those disparities were not addressed. 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. Source : Ghana News Agency