Bolgatanga: Mr Stephen Bordotsiah, the outgoing Bolgatanga Municipal Director of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), is spearheading the construction of a diagnostic laboratory and disease control unit at the Sumbrungu Health Centre to improve healthcare delivery in the area.
According to Ghana News Agency, the initiative, driven by Mr. Bordotsiah’s personal sacrifice and staff support, has transformed the facility into a referral centre for numerous Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compounds within the municipality. Mr. Bordotsiah generously donated all his allowances from a mass vaccination campaign in 2024 to kick-start the project after appeals for community support were unsuccessful.
Motivated by his dedication, all 54 supervisors in the municipality and staff at the Bolgatanga Health Directorate contributed GHS100.00 each towards the construction of the facility. Additionally, Mr. Bordotsiah sought aid from local philanthropists who provided essential building materials, while workers at the directorate and health centre volunteered their labour to ensure timely completion.
Currently, the Sumbrungu Health Centre lacks a diagnostic laboratory for basic tests such as malaria, typhoid, and stool analysis, forcing patients to rely on costly private facilities or travel long distances to the Upper East Regional Hospital in Bolgatanga. Mr. Bordotsiah, now transferred to the Bawku West District as the District Health Director, is committed to seeing the project through to completion and expressed gratitude to all contributors for their support.
He remarked, “Sumbrungu Health Centre is one of the oldest health facilities in the municipality but lacked basic diagnostic services. We did not have a lab, and yet it is serving a few CHPS zones here.” He noted that the project was initiated by raising over GHS6,000.00, with recent additional support from two businessmen to bring the project to fruition.
Madam Christiana Tibil, the Physician Assistant in charge of the Sumbrungu East Sub-Municipality, praised Mr. Bordotsiah for his leadership in enhancing healthcare delivery. She emphasized that the completion of the diagnostic laboratory and disease control unit would significantly improve early disease detection and reduce financial burdens on vulnerable households, while reinforcing the NoP initiative. However, she also appealed for renovations at the health centre, citing its deplorable state and insufficient space for quality service delivery.