One day I got an unfortunate opportunity to visit one of the hospitals in the Accra metropolis. Already, grapevine information has it that among the cherished achievements of this particular health institution are gross incompetence and neat unprofessionalism. As admirer of scientific principles, I initially doubted the substance of such rumours.
It is obvious that most of hospitals in Ghana are under-furnished with up-to-date facilities, under-staffed and inadequately resourced. One of such hospital is the La General hospital.
My first stop was the Out-patients department which was moderately sophisticated with a manageable number of rectangular seats, and adequate lighting. I was greeted by smell of disinfectants and moans of patients. It was a territory devoid of ecstasy, rather, saturated with pain, anxiety, tears, disappointments, and mixed feelings; a republic of hell.
But what struck me most was the manner in which the patients were attended to by the medical officers. The less I speak of it, the better. But the best adjective to describe the situation is ‘unspeakable’.
I got to know that their in-patient departments are choked coupled deteriorating facilities, which explains why some patients in serious medical conditions are positioned in the out-patients department.
It is time that the management of the hospital sits up and rectifies the appalling situations prevailing in the hospital. It is not enough to change the name from La Poly-clinic to La General Hospital; the paradigm shift must come with upgrading of facilities, better medical attention, and efficient discharge of services.
No comments:
Post a Comment