Feature by Kwabia Owusu-Mensah
Kumasi, Jan 09, – Komfo
Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), the nation’s second largest referral facility,
has been serving the health needs of people not only in the Northern sector of
the country, parts of the Western and Eastern Regions, but other neighbouring
countries.
The location of Kumasi as a vital
trade, business and cultural hub and the niche the hospital has carved for
itself as centre of excellence in health care delivery, makes it the preferred
referral point for many health facilities across Ghana, Burkina Faso, Mali,
Cote d’Ivoire, Niger and others.
This, without doubt is a
recognition of the quality of care to patients. The facility, in spite of this
has continued to struggle with inadequate space and equipment.
The twin challenge of lack of
space and the needed equipment has not been helpful to the efficient operation
of the facility.
Dr. Oheneba Owusu Danso, acting
Chief Executive, in a recent interaction with journalists in Kumasi,
acknowledged this.
Complaints, lamentations and
appeals by the management of the hospital to various governments to help
complete abandoned projects at the hospital to provide sufficient space, had
gone unheeded.
High maternal and neo-natal
deaths, especially at the child and maternal unit of the hospital, have been
blamed on severe congestion at the unit.
Congestion at KATH has been
widely reported in the media but appropriate response and action by the
government to resolve the problem is yet to be seen.
It is heart warming that the
First Lady, Mrs. Rebecca Akuffo Addo, has shown the way through the
mobilization of financial resources from individuals and corporate
organizations to build a new child and mother unit for the hospital.
The US$10 million project has now
been completed and is expected to be inaugurated later this month.
t should however be appreciated
that the challenge of congestion would not go away if determined efforts are
not made to complete the numerous stalled projects at the hospital.
Among these is the huge 999 bed
maternal and child health block, started by former Head of State, General Kutu
Acheampong in 1974.
The completion of this project,
together with the 20-year-old administration block complex, would mark a
turning point for the hospital.
Dr. Owusu Danso says the
completion of the 43-year-old block, is critical to efficient healthcare
delivery at the hospital.
One wonders why such a facility,
initiated by the late General Acheampong in those days to create convenient environment
for mothers and their children should be left uncompleted for so long.
General Acheampong rightly
foresaw in those days that Ghana’s population was going to increase and KATH
would face congestion in some years to come, so he decided to start the
gigantic block.
It is deeply upsetting and
regrettable that after more than four decades the project is yet to be
completed while congestion at the facility worsens.
There are also the added problems
of ageing and obsolete equipment and infrastructure.
The oxygen plant has been down
for years and has not been replaced forcing the hospital authorities to buy
oxygen from vendors at a higher cost.
There certainly could be a
co-relation between the high rate of deaths at the hospital, especially among
in-patients and emergency cases, and the congestion, obsolete equipment and
inadequate consumables.
The rate of deaths among patients
is becoming a source of worry to many people. The daily pitiful sight of people
wailing uncontrollably in front of the hospital for the loss of their
relatives, should be a call to action by the government.
It should as a matter of urgency,
take a bold and decisive decision to look for funds to complete all the stalled
projects to create the right working environment for doctors, nurses and other
health professionals to save lives.
GNA
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