Health disaster looms in greater Accra

As GHS abandons Danfa health centre

By Adu Koranteng

There is a looming disaster in Danfa and its nearby towns due to the reluctance of the Ghana Health service to equip the only health centre there to handle medical cases.

The health centre which was established and commissioned in 1970 by Dr Kofi Abrefa Busia has not seen any renovation works over this long period. The centre which receives more than 30 patients a day on the average has only 8 beds; out of which four have been allocated for men and the other four for women who go there under critical conditions.

According to Isaac Newton in an exclusive interview with The New Crusading Guide, Patients are only admitted when cases are serious and are referred after 24 hours when the situation cannot be handled. “ Since the hospital has no ambulance or any vehicles to operate with, accidents cases on the Akuapem ridge especially from Gyamkama, Peduase, Ayi-Mensah, Oyarifa which are sent there are referred to either the Pantang or Tetteh Quarshie hospitals through the normal “Trotro or Taxi which results in casualties in the end.

The centre has no autoclave or sterilizer machine to sterilize scissors, among other equipments used on pregnant women on labour for child delivery. Besides, it has no suction machines to resuscitate pregnant women and patients who are sent there unconscious, he told this reporter. So what happens when the equipments are used? “We have a professional way of cleaning it with chemicals whiles waiting for assistance from the government, he stated

This reporter saw with his naked eyes how dirty the building looked and the openings that allow water to flow from the roofing into the various departments the health centre leaks heavily whenever there is rainfall. It floods the information room where folders and computers are kept as well as pharmacy department. This leads to the destruction of folders and drugs that are kept there, making work there difficult to handle.

At the time of our visit pipe water was not flowing. This was when a woman was in labour. To curb the situation, the medical assistant and his team were relying on water from a nearby borehole to handle the situation

The centre has only two assistant medical officers who work 24 hours around the clock taking care of at least 30 patients on daily basis. According to Isaac Newton “most health workers assign to the centre refuses their postings due to lack of accommodation, water, poor electricity supply and unavailability of medical working tools.

Since 2004 when I came here, nothing has come to us as assistance or aid from government. The beds, wheel chairs stethoscopes were purchased through internally generated funds. These also include the generator which is being used currently, the beds the computers, he told this reporter. Sometimes the patients are not able to afford the GHC1.50p that we charge as consultation fee. This cripples our effort to generate enough IGF to help meet our needs” he stated Emmanuel Yaw Appiah, physician Assistant at the Danfa Medical Centre told The New Crusading Guide in an interview that management of the centre “has written to government and to the parliamentary level for help but nothing of that sort has come to us. We are in desperate need of assistance”.

“Due to the serious nature of the situation here we are unable to handle accident cases. The main laboratory here is also down. The microscopes and other equipments like the microscope have all developed faults and are not in good working conditions. We need to update our laboratory. We need government to come to our aid to help us acquire some of these needed equipments which will go a long way to help the hospital function effectively, he pleaded