ROLE OF COMMUNUNITY-BASED HEALTH PLANNING AND SERVICE (CHPS) IN HEALTHCARE DELIVERY IN THE SANGNERIGU MUNICIPALITY

Abstract

Effective Primary healthcare delivery is the key solution to most of the health problems of the majority of people in the world. It is the first point of call for most people with health problems in the communities and a gateway for public health interventions in Ghana. This makes it essential for periodic assessment to strengthen these systems over time to continue to perform this important role effectively. It is on this bases the research was conducted to assess the role of CHPS in healthcare delivery in the Sangnarigu municipality. Cross sectional research design was used, purposive and simple random sampling techniques were employed where 153 respondents were selected out of who 115 were nurses who worked in the CHPS zones,6 sub- municipal leaders and 32 community members. Also two groups of questionnaires, one for the healthcare providers and a separate one for the community health volunteers were used to collect the data. The data was analyzed using SPSS version 21. The ages of the healthcare providers vary from 20 to 44 years with females constituting 81.0% while that of the community members ranges from 30 years to 54 years with females constituting 71.9%. Majority of the healthcare providers worked in the structured CHPS zones 81.8% (99) while 18.2% (22) worked in Non-structured CHPS zones but those who worked in the structured CHPS zones, 73.7% (73) lived in the communities while 26.3% (26) lived outside the communities.

The Scope of services rendered ranges from community mobilization, maternal and child welfare, mental health and treatment of minor ailment. The best service delivered was health education and the least was mental health as agreed by 98.3% and 52.1% of the healthcare providers respectively with the non-structured outperforming the structured with the range of the services provision scoring 100% in 10 of the scope of the services provided. Overall, 80.2% (97) of health care professionals bemoan the effects of the rains on the healthcare delivery in their zones while 90.6% of the community volunteers affirmed the notion. Rainfall, unmotorable roads, unsafe sources of drinking water, floods, unsafe places for outreach activities and incidence of snake-bites were some of the factors that affected healthcare delivery in the municipality. There was however a disparity between healthcare providers’ availability to the communities as reported by the healthcare providers to staff access as reported by community members. To ameliorate these effects, the communities could help provide outreach structures for primary healthcare activities in their zones to reduce the truncating of the services during the rainy season. The Sangnarigu municipal assembly is encouraged to extend pipe borne water to communities like Gbalahi, Gumani and kulaa to help prevent the seasonal landfill site contamination of drinking sources. In conclusion, despite the numerous challenges, CHPS contribution to healthcare delivery in the municipality is generally good.