The nationwide strike by members of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) seemed to have hit hard at private health facilities and military and police hospitals.
The hardest hit appears to be the Police Hospital in Accra.
Officials admit the Hospital has been under a lot of pressure as a result of the strike and already it is telling on facilities.
“The Police Hospital has been under a lot of pressure with the influx of patients to the Hospital,” said Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Juliana Obeng, who is also the Public Relations Officer of the Hospital.
“We are very confident, and we are on top of the situation. Even, though, the Hospital's facilities have been overstretched, the assurance is that Ghanaians should not worry,” she assures.
“The Police Hospital is open 24/7, and doctors and medical staff plus other non-medical staff are working around the clock, to help save the national crisis.”
Hospital authorities have taken measures to save the situation as the numbers swell day-after-day.
The maternity ward is one of the overstretched facilities and not even the conversion of the cafeteria into an extra maternity ward has contained the increasing number of women in labour.
There is no let-up to new mothers as they are quickly discharged to make way for others.
“Any which way that you look at it, whether by numbers or by statistics or by logistics, it can show that the Hospital has been affected,” admitted ASP Obeng.
She, consequently, appealed to government and GMA to find a solution to the impasse.
“We are hoping that in the shortest possible time government and doctors would come to a common front so that the pressure that has mounted on this facility will gradually come to an end.”
The doctors withdrew services to out-patients on April 8, 2013 but withdrawal of emergency services on April 22, 2013 has worsened the plight of most patients especially those who cannot afford medical care at private hospitals due to the expense.
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