The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Ghana has pledged to build 55 new Community-Based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) and renovate 150 CHPS in the Volta and Northern regions.


The Agency explained that statistics showed that health care delivery in those regions were not encouraging, therefore, there was the need to improve quality health care for all of its citizens.


Ms Oren Whyche-Shaw, the Deputy Assistant Administrator for African Bureau for USAID, said this in Accra when with her entourage, she toured the Teiman CHPS Centre, and the ‘Barack Obama School of Excellence’ at Mamprobi, funded by the USAID, at Mamprobi.


USAID supported the Ghana Health Service to construct and strengthen CHPS across the country to treat malaria and diarrhoeal diseases, screen and refer anaemic and stunted children to requisite clinics, and give immunisations to reduce to infant and child mortality.


Ms Whyche-Shaw said the US Government shared Ghana’s goal of bridging the access gap using a multi-sectoral approach to improving health care based on the principles of equity, which targeted the most vulnerable in society.


She said the CHPS presented an opportunity to deliver life-saving and life-improving health services by the use of community-based health resources to increase access to quality integrated health services.


“USAID believes that through effective partnerships with Ghana and the private sector, Ghanaians will experience more equitable improvements in their health status and improved governance and accountability in the health sector,” she explained.


Ms Whyche-Shaw stated that USAID would continue to support the Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Services’ efforts at ensuring a high-performing financially sustainable health system that was responsive to the needs of Ghanaians.


She expressed her satisfaction with the visit, saying the tour provided an opportunity to appreciate the results of shared efforts and collaboration between USAID and the Ministry of Health to improve the health of young children and pregnant mothers.


Ms Pricilla Anima Siaw, the Municipal Health Director of the Madina La-Nkwantanang Assembly, said some of the services rendered by the Teiman CHPS included family planning, school health education, immunization and home visitation.


She mentioned some of the challenges facing the CHPS centre as lack of accommodation for the nurses, lack of logistics such as computers, and BP equipment.


At the ‘Barack Obama School for Excellence’, Mrs Whyche-Shaw said she was excited about the strides Ghana has made in bolstering education not only in Accra but all over the country.


The school is a three-storey block with an 18-unit primary and Junior High School classroom facilities. There are Science and computer laboratories, supported by the US Government and the Accra Metropolitan Assembly.


She said from 2011 to 2013, USAID Ghana provided 2.3 million dollars to the AMA to build and furnish four school complexes to help increase access to basic education and eradicate the shift system in the Accra Metropolitan area.


Mrs Lucy Harnu-Annih, the outgoing Headmistress of the School, said the school had helped in ensuring that children were given the foundational skills to read with understanding in the early grades of primary school.