By Stephen Kwabena Effah
Monday, 11 February 2008
The normal known challenges of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital have been the lack of doctors, nurses, and other staff, but now it has emerged that another challenge is that of the 50-year-old lifts which break down intermittently, making health service delivery cumbersome.
The breakdown of the elevators in storey buildings at the hospital is hampering work there, says Dr. Benjamin Annan, acting Chief Executive of the hospital.
"Currently, the 32-bed capacity medical and Surgical Emergency Ward is not in use because its elevator is down."
Dr. Annan expressed these concerns when the Health Minister, Major (rtd) Courage Quashiga, last Friday inspected projects completed and ongoing at the hospital.
He said when the elevators are not functioning, personnel of the hospital are obliged to carry patients up the stairs for treatment.
The hospital has contracted an engineer in Switzerland to fix the elevator at the Medical and Surgical Emergency Unit, within two weeks, he said.
At the newly refurbished Gynaecology Theatre, Professor Lassey Anyetei, acting head of the department, said out of the three theatres, only two are functional. The ward needs a diathermy machine, which controls bleeding during surgery, and accessories to make it function.
The minister inspected a five-storey medical ward being renovated by the hospital at a cost of GH¢1.5 million. The building, constructed in the 1960s will after renovation, accommodate the intensive care unit, pharmacy and conference hall among others.
Dan Seedah of Macdons Engineering Consult, contractors for the project, told the minister that work started on the building five years ago but was delayed until two years ago due to infrequent cash flow.
A major problem has been the procurement of materials because of the slow procurement process but said that is being fast-tracked, noting that work is expected to be complete by July this year.
The minister inspected a 16-block housing project being undertaken by the Health Ministry.
Mr Jackson Amankwah, head of Capital Investment and management unit of the ministry said seven blocks have so far been completed for allocation.
He said that they have run out of funds and thus requested ¢14.5 million from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning to complete the rest of the blocks in three years.
He said the blocks would be allocated to health workers, especially doctors to solve their accommodation problem.
Dr. Annan appealed to the ministry to allocate about 90 per cent of the blocks to health workers of the hospital since they were instrumental in the projects and also because they are close to the hospital.
Maj. Quashigah said the blocks are useful for, especially new doctors’ accommodation, adding, "We will make sure the hospital gets the majority of them."
He urged them to draw a maintenance plan for all their projects to ensure that proper maintenance work are carried out all the time as would be spelt out in the plan.
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