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.