The people of Akontombra in the Sefwi Akontombra District in the Western North Region now have a well-equipped hospital to ensure improved healthcare delivery.
The facility, which has already started operating, is well-equipped with the needed equipment and consumables.
The new district hospital, which started in 2018, has an outpatient department, a theatre, modern hospital beds, a children’s ward, male and female wards, a psychiatric unit, public health, an x-ray, a dispensary and consulting rooms, as well as other administrative units.
In a speech read on his behalf at the handover ceremony by the Head of the Biological and Engineering Unit and Infrastructure Directorate of the Ministry of Health, Dr Nicholas Adjabu, the Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, called for prudent management of the facility.
He said the government remained committed to ensuring an improved healthcare system for the people and that healthy citizens had the potential to contribute to national development.
The minister expressed the hope that with the health facility in place, the difficulties residents had to go through, including long travel time to access health care would be a thing of the past.
After taking over the facility, the ministry handed over the facility to the Western North Regional and the District health directorates, as well as the medical superintendent assigned to the area.
The ministry also presented a well-equipped ambulance; a pick-up vehicle and four motorbikes to support the day-to-day running of the hospital.
The Sefwi Akontombra District Chief Executive, Yawson Amoah, commended the government for redeeming its pledge to the people of Sefwi Akontombra, adding that the facility meant a lot to the people.
He said aside from the handover of the project, the contractor had also been asked to stay on and help in the management of the facility for the next five years.
“I commend the Member of Parliament for Sefwi Akontombra, Alex Djornuboah Tetteh, and the chiefs and people of Akontombra for their tireless effort,” he said.
The Chief of Sefwi Akontombra, Nana Kwabena Ebi II, commended the government for the hospital which is close to the communities in the district and adjoining ones.
He said to show the commitment of the community, the town would make available accommodation for doctors and the medical superintendent, as well as the health workers as work on the government bungalows progressed.
Hitherto, people depended on health centres and CHPS compounds for their health needs.
There are two health centres, three maternity homes and 18 rural CHIPS compounds.
Sefwi Akontombra was carved out of the Sefwi Wiawso Municipality in 2007 with the legislative instrument (LI 1884), with Akontombra as its district capital. The district has 15 electoral areas, and two area councils, with the district chief executive as the political head.
The district has a population of about 70,225 according to the 2021 Population and Housing Census.
The people had to travel hundreds of kilometres to the adjoining Juaboso or Wiawso government hospitals in the past for medical attention.
Though endowed, the district is deprived in terms of the availability of health facilities and corresponding personnel.
The district is divided into three health sub-districts of Nsawora, Akontombra and Kramokrom for effective and efficient service delivery.
The mainstay of the people of Sefwi Akontombra is agriculture and its ancillary activities.
Agriculture employs about 85.3 per cent of the economically active population.
The district produces many food crops, palm trees and the main cash crop, cocoa.
These crops are inter-planted with cocoa seedlings from the first year until the third year when the cocoa trees start bearing fruits.
The district is also one of the largest producers of timber in the region.
