The lives of many pregnant women, cholera patients, and other patients visiting the Dansoman Polyclinic are under threat because of congestion, poor hygiene, unsafe water, and lack of equipment, Hospital Officials have said.
Additionally, the lack of basic facilities such as beds, wheel chairs, Blood Pressure (BP) monitors, benches, and weighing machines were hindering the success of delivering quality health services to the teeming patients of the Polyclinic.
Dr Felicia Anderson, Acting Medical Superintendent of the Polyclinic, told the Ghana News Agency during a visit to the facility, on Monday, that pipe-borne water had stopped flowing for over four months, while constant interruption of power supply affected work.
She said overcrowding, poor ventilation and lack of water exposed patients, particularly, pregnant women, and those suffering from cholera, as well as health professionals, to danger of being infected with contagious diseases.
The GNA’s visit to the facility showed that patients on admission in the five-bed adult ward and two-bed children’s were crammed with health workers placing their desks by the patients in the narrow rooms.
The polyclinic has neither a delivery ward nor room, while cholera patients were housed under tents with their two wooden benches located closely to the polyclinic’s water tanks and the laboratory, a situation Dr Anderson said created additional health risk.
The Polyclinic, which was commissioned in 1974, as the Dansoman Health Post, was later redesignated as a Health Centre and then upgraded in 2008 to a Polyclinic.
It serves about 242,192 clients from Dansoman Estates, Mataheko, Russia, SSNIT Flats, Darkuman, Awoshie, South Odorkor, Odorkor and Mpoase.
However, Dr Anderson, who expressed frustration over the congestion and the daily pressure on the Polyclinic, said: “This facility now serves the whole of Dansoman, Agege, and people from Kasoa, Mallam and other places…, they come here to receive healthcare but we have very limited facilities.”
She said about 150 diabetic patients were attended to on Wednesdays, while more than 200 patients with hypertension, were seen on Thursdays.
The Deputy Director of Nursing Services in-charge of the Polyclinic, Madam Mercy Sagoe, stated that the congestion and lack of water needed immediate solution.
She said out-patients attendance in 2013 stood at 33,188, while as at the end of November 2014, the figure was hovering around 29,944.
She said the total targeted population was 249,700 but due to lack of funds for expanding the infrastructure and improving the conditions, the staff only managed to meet just about 45 per cent of the coverage.
The health officials called for the relocation of the polyclinic to its acquired site along the 31st Road at Dansoman.
They also appealed to the government, agencies, and corporate institutions to provide financial and logistical support to the polyclinic to move out of its current deplorable condition.
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