Korle Bu Child's Unit In Crisis

The children’s unit at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital is a shocking example of the current standards of public health service provision. Charitable donations from foreign donors, NGOs and private companies, continue to keep the situation afloat, although Wednesday’s planned anniversary of a foundation set up to raise funds for the hospital had to be cancelled due to a lack of achievement.

As many as five children can be found sharing a single bed in the emergency room, each suffering from a different disease. Some smaller children are treated on their parent’s laps and others are turned away due to the lack of space.

The conditions in this rooms are hostile, hot and crowded - there is nothing to make the suffering lighter for the children, no toys or even pictures on the wall.

All of the hospital’s equipment is either ancient or obsolete. In the Natal Intensive care unit, incubators holding premature babies, are held together by sticking plasters. Oxygen and other life support measures are used without monitors to determine exactly what each child needs to survive.

And, on top of this it seems there are staffing problems too. Theresa Crabbe, a Matron at the unit told JOY FM’s Miriam Rowe that during peak periods, the nurse to patient (child) ratio is 1:25. It reduces to 1:20 children during lean periods.

The result is that three out of 10 babies born at the hospital die within their short time spent there. This is shocking because Korle Bu is a Teaching Hospital and the first place of entry for any child taken ill in the country.

Efforts to improve the hospital’s environment have been facilitated by generous foreign and private donors but the mortality rate remains high. A consultant and representative of the children’s foundation set up improve conditions at the unit, Dr Badeo told Joy FM that it is primarily the government’s responsibility to ensure the best healthcare for the people. He regretted that the government is not contributing enough towards a developed health service.