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Effia Nkwanta hospital cries for help
Sekondi, July 12, GNA- The Effia Nkwanta Hospital in Sekondi
in the Western Region is over stretched and lacks the
requisite doctors, equipment and infrastructure for
effective health care delivery.
The introduction of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS)
has worsened the plight of the hospital and its personnel
making it unfriendly to the sick.
The hospital management when contacted said it was aware of
the problems.
Ghana News Agency (GNA) investigations at the hospital has
revealed that there are no new housemen assisting and
learning from the senior doctors after the nine who were
posted to the hospital last year have all been transferred
to head district hospitals and polyclinics in the region.
For this year the hospital did not receive any freshmen to
support the seniors doctors, thus increasing the workload on
the various units.
Each unit of the hospital is supposed to have between six
and nine doctors but presently only one is present.
Senior retired medical doctors who were re-engaged are
unable to meet the growing demand for quality health service
at the hospital.
There are also undue delays at the Out patients department (OPD),
Pharmacy and laboratory making the sick to spend between
four to six hours before being attended to.
The Accident and Emergency, OPD, Casualty, X ray, Antenatal
and Paediatric units and the entire hospital is overcrowded
with patients almost everyday and this was also affecting
the health of the few Doctors and other health workers at
Effia Nkwanta.
Most of the equipment at the hospital are obsolete and needs
replacement to facilitate health care delivery.
Many of the patients are usually seen either murmuring or
accusing the doctors of inefficiency and foot-dragging among
others.
Any attempt by other persons to jump the various queues at
any of the units are usually, met with insults,
demonstrating the frustrations of the patients.
Some Doctors the GNA spoke to said they had complained to
management about the situation at the hospital but nothing
had been done about it.
The non-computerisation of the OPD and the Pharmacy coupled
with the excessive documentation on all NHIS forms and
folders had also accounted for more problem.
GNA
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