Friday , March 29 2024

TEMA GENERAL HOSPITAL COLLAPSING

The only referral hospital in the Tema Metropolis, the Tema General Hospital, is in a crisis, following the absence of running water and the sorry state of its mortuary.

Investigations conducted by this paper reveal that for the past two years, the hospital depends on tanker services provided by ZoomLion Ghana Limited and sometimes the Ghana National Fire Service. The Hospital, our inquisition, unearthed, has to ‘cough out’ almost GH¢4,000 (¢40 million) per month to ZoomLion for the services rendered.

The situation, aside the financial burden, has rendered the entire hospital almost incapacitated, because serious areas such as the labour ward, surgical theaters, and mortuary cannot function as expected.

On several occasions, the hospital authorities have had to refer cases to either the 37 Military or Korle Bu Teaching hospitals, due to the non-availability of water.

The Administrative Officer at the hospital, Madam Elizabeth Dogbe, said in 2005, when the health institution started experiencing water shortages, the attention of the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) was drawn and investigations conducted by the water company came out with a finding that the existing galvanised pipelines, which were laid over half a century ago, should be changed for new ones.

According to Madam Dogbe, who took over as head of administration barely two months ago, estimated bills, ranging between GH¢77,072,000 and GH¢83,683,000, were submitted by the contractors for the project.

In 2009, when the situation was deteriorating, the hospital again consulted Aqua Vittend Rand Limited (AVRL), which suggested the construction of an underground water reservoir for harvesting rain water, which project was pegged at GH¢317,456.

Since then, several correspondences have been going from the hospital to the Ministry of Health, through the Regional Administration, the latest being on March 17, this year.

ZoomLion, our investigations revealed, is paid GH¢3,000 on the average. The money paid is realised from its Internally Generated Funds (IGF).

The Labour Ward, according to statistics, is the third busiest in the country, after the Korle Bu and Konfo Anokye Teaching hospitals. Victims of the numerous road traffic accidents on the motorway, Tema-Aflao and Tema-Akosombo roads are first sent to the Tema General Hospital, before they are referred to the Korle Bu and 37 Military hospitals.

The official 40-body capacity mortuary is an apology of a morgue, because the freezing units are very obsolete and cannot therefore deliver the required temperature. Sanitation at the mortuary is so bad that the health of attendants is a worry to everyone.

Information we gathered disclosed that a 80-body capacity forty-footer container converted into a freezing unit broke down about three years ago.

This development has occasioned the staff to make do with a 40-body capacity twenty-footer container freezing unit. At any given time, at least 100 dry embalmed bodies are scattered on the floor of the mortuary, raising health and psychological concerns, especially, at this period of the cholera epidemic.

Medical staff and bereaved relatives who visit the mortuary make a common statement: “As the first planned city in West Africa, Tema does not deserve this morgue.”

Meanwhile, the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) is leading a crusade to assist the Tema General Hospital have access to treated water, which is now the hottest commodity at the only referral health institution in the port city.

The Authority is currently undertaking feasibility studies at the hospital to brace itself for the task, which will involve mainly the replacement of existing pipelines which were buried in the ground over a century ago.

The Director of Port, Tema, Richard A. Anamoo, who endorsed the project, said the GPHA had an umbilical cord connected to the hospital dating as far back as 1960 during the construction of the Tema Port, when the health facility was put up to cater for the medical needs of the workers engaged at the site.

The GPHA, he said, came to realise the gravity of the water problem facing the hospital, following an appeal the institution made through journalists.

According to the Director of Port, the present state of affairs at the Tema General Hospital does not befit the status of Tema as a metropolis, industrial and port city, and that the authority was going to spear-head efforts to give it a facelift.

He went on to say that considering the fact that major surgery cases at the hospital are referred to either the 37 Military or Korle Bu Teaching Hospitals there was the need to upgrade the hospital.

 

source: The chronicles

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