West-Brong Presbytery Health Service, has inaugurated five brand new Great Wall pick-up vehicles worth GHC180,000 to augment its existing fleet of cars to boost health care delivery health care to the people.
Purchased under the Government’s Vehicle Hire Purchase Scheme for health institutions, the new batch of vehicles has brought to nine the number of vehicles procured by West-Brong Presbytery Health Service since its current management assumed office in September, 2007.
Beneficiary Presbyterian Health Centres are Aboabo, Suma-Ahenkro, Kwadwokumikrom, Kwamebikrom and Dormaa Presbyterian Hospital’s Primary Health Care Unit.
Dedicating the vehicles to God’s Glory, the West-Brong Presbytery Chairperson and Chairman of the Presbytery’s Health Service Board, Reverend Dr. Kofi Effa Ababio noted with joy the spate of positive change chalked out in the health sector of the Presbytery over the past three years and commended the staff for their diligence.
Rev. Dr. Ababio stressed that good and fruitful evangelism aimed at winning more souls for the Creator could only be achieved by healthy and sound-minded people hence the readiness of the Presbyterian Church to harness all available human and material resources to complement government’s efforts at keeping a healthy populace for growth and development.
He appealed to management and staff of hospitals in and Presbyterian hospitals to deliver quality health care to the people.
The Presbytery Chairperson advised drivers of the new vehicles to be guided by the laid-down Highway Code to avoid accidents adding that accidents involving health service vehicles would end up defeating the very objectives for which hospitals were set up.
Handing the keys of the vehicles to the board Chairman, the Dormaa Municipal chief Executive (MCE), Mr. Vincent Oppong Asamoah, commended the Presbyterian Church and other religious organizations and donor agencies for their complementary roles, particularly in the health, education and the agricultural sectors, to enhance good health for optimum productivity, quality education and food security.
He underscored the correlation between good health and wealth creation adding that the Church’s efforts were in consonance with the National Democratic Congress’s campaign promise of making basic health care accessible to the masses by expanding health service infrastructure, improving staff welfare and providing scholarship for health personnel among others.
“In furtherance of the promise, government has rolled out a number of health programmes, including the signing of memoranda of Understanding between the Regional Coordinating Councils and the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies on one hand and the Ghana Private Road Transport Union on the other to facilitate timely transportation of women in labour to referral centres to cut down on the nation’s unacceptable maternal mortality rates’, the MCE said.
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Dormaa-West, Mr. Kwaku Agyeman Manu, who released part of his 2010 MP’s Common Fund to construction works at the hospital and the Church’s proposed midwifery Training School at Dormaa-Ahenkro, called on the people to avoid partisan politics for the development of the Municipality.
He pledged GHC10,000 of his 2011 MP’s Common Fund towards construction of more health facilities and payment of health insurance premium for the elderly in the constituency to boost access to basic health care.
The West-Brong Presbytery Health Service’s General Manager, Mr. Fred Effah-Yeboah, said when he assumed office in 2007, none of the seven health Centres under his jurisdiction had vehicles to facilitate health care delivery.
Mr Effah-Yeboah commended the government for instituting the vehicle hire purchase scheme.
The General Manager paid glowing tribute to officials of the Presbyterian Health Service for facilitating the acquisition of the vehicles, and gave the assurance that his office would monitor their use to ensure that they are utilized for the intended purpose.
He also expressed profound gratitude to the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Holland for taking it upon itself to supply seven vehicles to the Primary Care Unit of the Dormaa Presbyterian hospital from the 1980s to 2006 out of which three were still roadworthy.
“Conscious of the important role that transportation plays in quality health care delivery, Management of the West-Brong Presbytery Health Service would not leave any stone unturned in its bid to ensure availability, usability and reliability of a minimum fleet of vehicles and motorbikes to boost timely delivery of relevant services for the attainment of maximum results”, he assured.
For the drivers of the new vehicles, Mr. Effah-Yeboah drew their attention to the current spate of carnage on the nation’s roads and urged them to drive with maximum care while respecting the rights of all other road users in their areas of operation.