Kwahu government hospital threatens shut down

The management of the Kwahu Government Hospital, Atibie in the Kwahu South District of the Eastern Region, has threatened to halt healthcare services to the public due to lack of logistics and faulty equipment at the health facility.

According to management, their inability to continue caring for the healthcare needs of the public has resulted from months of unsuccessful attempts to get health authorities to provide them with the needed logistics, as well as replace equipment that are non-functional in the hospital.

Kwame Ampadu, the hospital administrator, stated that the lack of logistics and other issues, including staff attrition, are contributing factors to the major challenges facing the hospital.

Explaining the magnitude of the situation, Mr Ampadu pointed out that most of the hospital’s vehicles, especially the ambulance, had broken down, forcing them to convert the hospital’s hearse into an ambulance for emergency cases.

He further stated that they had not received any money from the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) for the past one year to run the hospital, although they had provided healthcare services to NHIA card bearers.

Mr Ampadu added that the hospital had been buying most of their essential drugs on hire purchase to run the NHIS programme, making them indebted to many pharmaceutical companies.

He said their only source of income come from the mortuary department, which is very minimal to sustain operations of the hospital.

The administrator, therefore, pleaded with authorities of the NHIA to reimburse them and for health authority to immediately release funds and post health professionals to the facility to enable them to carry out their duties.