General News of Thursday, 12 July 2018

Source: starrfmonline.com

No-bed syndrome: Release emergency funds to hospitals – Minority to Government

MP for Binduru Constituency, Dr Robert Kuganab-Lem MP for Binduru Constituency, Dr Robert Kuganab-Lem

The Minority in parliament is demanding the release of emergency funds to teaching hospitals across the country.

This, according to the NDC MPs, has been necessitated by the congestion experienced by the hospitals in recent times, most notable being the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital where patients are being treated on chairs, tables and on the floor due to unavailability of beds.

Speaking to Starr News, Deputy Ranking member on the Health Committee of Parliament Dr Robert Kuganab-Lem said $2million for each facility should help resource them.

“What we have to do as a matter of emergency is to give some money, some resources to all hospitals [across the country], starting of course with the teaching hospitals, the regional hospitals and the district hospitals,” he stated.

He continued “for example what we need to do is to give Korle Bu Teaching Hospital two million cedis to expand their emergency facilities right away, buy some beds to be able to take in the population because there’s an explosion of ill-health and the facilities are not there….this is a matter we have to do right away so that they improve on their facilities quickly before we do long term planning.”

Meanwhile, the Ghana Medical association has added its voice to calls for greater resource allocation to hospitals.

Speaking to Starr News the General Secretary of the Association Dr. Justice Yankson said government must resource the hospitals in order to be fully functional paving the way for the building of proper emergency medical system.