Korle-bu Gynae Theatre gathers dust

Some aggrieved nurses at the Gynaecology Theatre Department of the Korle-bu Teaching Hospital say they are disappointed at the failure of the health authorities to equip the theatre, two years after its renovation.

The nurses who pleaded anonymity for fear of victimization said the situation is making their efforts to save lives difficult, besides dampening their moral.

The Gynaecology Theatre is a magnificent 15 air-conditioned facility, renovated at a cost of ¢5.1 billion, purposefully to reduce maternal mortality. It was commissioned at a splendid and colourful ceremony on July 27, 2005 by President John Agyekum Kufuor.

But the edifice has remained a 'white elephant', thanks to what the nurses say is a case of conflict of interest involving some medical officers of the unit, who have private hospitals to which they refer pregnant women.

Rather, the theatre unit of the Children's Block is now being used as a makeshift Gynae theatre. "The Children's Surgical Theatre we are using now is not convenient, but we are trying to manage. Now it takes more than 10 minutes to transfer patients here and anything could happen," one nurse lamented.

Two months ago when the Public Agenda carried a report on the neglect of the theatre, the hospital's Public Relations Officer (PRO), Mr. Mustapha Salifu promised that the theatre would be ready for use by June. It is now August and yet there are no signs that the theatre will be in use.

All phone calls by this reporter to get him comment on the issue proved futile as there was no response.

“There are no patients’ trolleys, no beds, no drip stands, no monitors, etc.,” the nurses lamented.

The aggrieved nurses said the same zeal with which the authorities put up the administration block and fully equipped it with internally generated funds should have been applied to the Gynae theatre.

"We are ready to move there because where we are now is not convenient, but if we should go there in its current state things will be worse."

"A whole premier hospital without a Gynae theatre for the past five years is a shame. We the nurses are worse off because we are here 24 hours a day."

According to them, at the temporary theatre, they are compelled to carry patients in an ambulance from the theatre OPD to the Children's block to handle.

The Public Agenda has learnt that due to the limited space to work, there is a backlog of cases waiting to be attended to. They cited shortage of water, stitchers, and inadequate staff as some of the inconveniences facing them.

According to them, the maximum number of elective cases (those that do not require urgent attention), they are able to handle daily is between six to eight in addition to four to six emergency cases, when they could have been doing more if there was an enabling environment.

"We are so frustrated and it is very sad. We can't even get modem trolleys to carry patients. Things are deteriorating and need to be changed. When requests are made for equipment to be fixed or replaced, it takes ages. It takes three weeks to get a common bulb changed and even telephones are not working", a senior nurse said.

The nurses wondered why the contract was awarded to a private consultant, when the hospital has an engineering unit. Public Agenda sources at the engineering unit confirmed the claims, saying that, "it was abnormal, but we cannot do anything than to keep quiet and pro¬tect our jobs."