Private Health facilities appeal for coronavirus logistics

Private Health facilities in the Upper East Region have appealed to government and corporate bodies to support them with some Personal Protective Equipment and hygiene materials to boost their efforts to effectively curb the spread of the novel Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19).

They said the private health sector had contributed immensely to the healthcare systems in the country especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, government and development partners have not considered them in the donation of COVID-19 logistics.

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, Mr Rashid Bawa Agana, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Amiah hospital at Soe, a surburb Bolgatanga, said government health facilities alone could not fight the pandemic without the support of private health institutions.

The PRO said when the Upper East Regional Hospital maternity ward was closed down by the management of the facility to pave way for fumigation as a result of an encounter with the first COVID-19 patient, the Regional hospital referred many pregnant women to the Amiah’s health facility for deliveries.

“Within April alone, the Amiah’s hospital received 108 pregnant women and conducted deliveries on them without any maternal and neonatal deaths”, he stressed.

He said the facility which provides 24 hour services in maternity and antenatal care, child health, family planning, In-patient care and general out-patient care, laboratory, diagnostic ultrasound scan, Dental services, minor and major surgical procedures in general surgery among others, since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic had not received any support from either the government or any development partner.

Narrating the hospital’s experience when the 108 pregnant women were referred by the Regional Hospital to Amiah’s hospital for delivery, Dr John Kese, Senior Medical Officer and Mrs Margaret Kugre, Principal Midwife, said although there were fears of contracting the disease, they had no option but to conduct the deliveries following the principles of Public Health.

“We isolate ourselves from our families when go home after work so as not to get them infected should we have contracted it in our line of duty. We have also converted part of the health facility to make home for the deliveries”, they indicated.

Dr Aduko Amiah, the Managing Director and founder of Amiah’s Hospital, said the facility attends to an average of 3,750 outpatients a month and about 469 in-patients.

Mr Thomas More, the founder of the Ayamfoya Health Centre in the Nabdam District told the GNA that the health facility had been contributing immensely to the fight against the pandemic.

He said the facility had converted one of its staff’s accommodation to quarantine a COVID-19 patient.

Mr More said the facility had so far received only Veronica buckets from individuals to assist its work but needed Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) such as face masks, alcohol based sanitizers and infrared thermometers to effectively render services that would help curb the spread of the disease.