The Upper West Regional Health Directorate in collaboration with Japan International corporation agency (JICA) on Monday commenced a two week Community Health Officers (CHO) training programme for newly trained Community Health nurses in the Upper West Region.
The two weeks technical skills training programme, the first of its kind in the region is to equip 105 community health nurses with skills to manage the various Community–based Health Planning Service (CHPS) Compounds in the region.
Dr.Abdullai Forgor, Upper West regional director of health services, speaking at the opening of the training programme said the training is part of an overall “train and retain” policy by his outfit, aimed at reducing attrition within the health sector in the region.
[contextly_sidebar id=”b939b6nft6ZpaKmlJG6s33PKYbDTuotk”]He decried “we are having more CHPS compounds but the CHOs, we are not getting them. All those we trained are leaving for further studies and this has brought a lot of burden on most of our health facilities”. He added “instead of allowing them to go home, we will do the CHO training so that after the training they can function properly where ever they are posted. So we hope this will take care of attrition which is currently a problem for us”
Available records indicate that though the Upper West region has made some significant progress in health infrastructure with over 128 operational CHPS compounds, inadequate health staff still remains a major challenge with some of the compounds currently operating without qualified community health officers.
This, the regional director described as “a worrying situation” that is hindering good quality health care delivery in remote areas of the region. He said plans are far advanced to extend the Community Health Officers training programme to general nurses, midwives and other critical staff of the various health facilities in the region.
Zacchi Sabogu , Upper West regional CHPS coordinator, said participants will be taken through 14 standard models comprising one week theory and a week for field practicals.He revealed that JICA is in the process of constructing 64 additional CHIPS compounds in the Upper West region. The 64 according to him will be equipped and furnished plus 21 of the existing CHIPS compounds.
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By: Mahama Latif/citifmonline.com/Ghana