No Drugs for clinics in South-Tongu for three months

Soakage, May 31, GNA-The South-Tongu District Directorate of the Ghana Health Service has not dispatched fresh pharmaceutical supplies to some clinics in the area for the past three months, because of the lack of skilled staff to dispense them.

As a result, the Angorto Health Centre at Dordoekope had to turn away a three-year old boy, rushed there by his parents with convulsion, as there were no drugs for his treatment.

Ms. Benedicta Seshie, Director, South-Tongu District Directorate of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) who confirmed this to the GNA in an interview at the weekend said the situation was grim and needed urgent attention.

She said shortage of staff was particularly hitting the very base of the medical care system adding that, besides midvives at the Sogakope District Hospital and Kpotame, there were no midwives in the public sector in the district.

Miss Seshie said her outfit had contacted the Volta Regional Health Directorate requesting for the posting of five midwives, one Public Health Nurses and 15 Community Health Nurses to save the situation in the area. She said Dordoekope needed a Medical Assistant in view of its strategic location.

Miss Seshie also complained about encroachment on lands designated as property of the GHS. She said at Tefle for example, members of the community continued to bury corpses on the compound of the clinic, though the agreement before the clinic was that the community would stop using the area as a cemetery.

Miss Seshie said private developers were also encroaching on GHS lands and compounds in Sogakope and that the chiefs of the area had been contacted to help stop the trend. When contacted, Miss Kate Aku Aglah, South Tongu District Chief Executive (DCE) said the Assembly was talking with the landowners to give sometime to government to pay the appropriate compensations for their land. She explained that government acquired the land by executive instruments but was yet to pay for them.