Give private health institutions logistics to help fight coronavirus - Rashid Bawa

Government and Development partners have been urged to consider private health institutions in the country in the donation and distribution of coronavirus (COVID-19) logistics to help fight the pandemic.

The Public Relations Officer (PRO) of Amiah Hospital in the Upper East Region, Mr Rashid Bawa Agana, who made the call in an interview with the Ghanaian Times here last Tuesday, said government hospitals alone could not fight the pandemic without the support from the private health institutions.

The PRO cited for instance that when the Upper East Regional Hospital maternity ward was closed down by the management of the facility to pave way for fumigation, as a result of the encounter of a COVID-19 pregnant patient, the regional hospital referred a lot of pregnant women to Amiah’s health facility for deliveries.

“Within April alone the Amiah Hospital, which is located at Zaare-Soe, a suburb of the Bolgatanga Municipality in the region, received 108 pregnant women and conducted successful deliveries on them without any maternal and neonatal deaths,” he stressed.

He said the facility which provides 24-hour service in maternity and antenatal care, child health, family planning, in-patient care and general out-patient care, laboratory, diagnostic ultrasound scan, dental services, minor and major surgical procedures in general surgery, among others, since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic had not received any support from either the government or any development partner, except a donation from the Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga, Mr Isaac Adongo.

He indicated that average antenatal care attendance of the facility is about 150 per month, 40 routine deliveries per month and family-planning records an average attendance 15 per month.

The PRO explained further that due to the rendering of quality healthcare services and the good human relationships the facility had gained for itself, it received a lot patients from all the 15 Municipal and District Assemblies in the region and beyond.

Mr Agana stated that the facility which has about 89 staff, including four medical doctors, eight midwives, 16 nurses, eight health assistants, physician assistants, anesthetic, pharmacy technician, laboratory technicians, medicine counter assistants as well as 20 administrative and supporting staff.

Narrating their experiences when the 108 pregnant women were referred by the regional hospital, where a pregnant woman was diagnosed as COVID-19 patient to Amiah Hospital for delivery, Dr John Kese, Senior Medical Officer and Mrs Margaret Kugre, Principal Midwife Officer, said although there were fears of contracting the disease, they had no option but to conduct the delivery following the principles of public health.

“We isolate ourselves from our families when we go home after work, so as not to get them infected should we have contracted it in our line of duty. We also have converted part of the health facility to make room for the deliveries,” they said.

The medical director and founder of Amiah Hospital, Dr Aduko Amiah, said the facility attends to an average of 3,750 outpatients a month and about 469 in-patients.