Bekwai (Ash), June 22, GNA - The Asante-Bekwai Government Hospital, one of the important and strategic health facilities in the Ashanti Region, has only one resident medical doctor. Mr Samuel Dodzi, the Administrator, who disclosed this, said this could be counter-productive in enhancing effective health care delivery in the Amansie area and beyond if the situation was not remedy immediately.

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency at Asante-Bekwai, Mr Dodzi attributed the current high doctor-patient ratio to the fact that the three additional doctors at the hospital were on study leave. The Administrator therefore appealed to the Regional Directorate of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) to be prompt in posting doctors to the hospital to save lives.

Mr Dodzi said lack of basic equipment and facilities such as delivery and theatre beds, which are now outmoded, and staff accommodation among others were hampering effective operation of the hospital, and appealed to non-governmental organizations (NGOs), philanthropists and Bekwai citizens residents in the diaspora to come to their aid.

He said the hospital has established Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) Units, which needed to be resourced with ultra-modern equipment and logistics. Mr Dodzi commended the Member of Parliament (MP) for the area, Mr Joe Osei-Owusu for his recent donation of 45 bed sheets to the hospital to improve health delivery.