The 37 Military Hospital in Accra is still struggling to provide emergency care due to the lack of healthcare supplies and equipment despite promises made after last year’s June 3 disaster.
According to an Officer in-charge of Medical Stores and Equipment, Lieutenant Colonel Richard Attara, though the hospital is relatively better resourced than other health facilities, the lack of some vital equipment rendered it impossible to say they were ready to deal with future disasters.
[contextly_sidebar id=”WYlvcuwpvLTGIJn3mRBRDISDhxekfGvA”]The Officer-in-charge of Medical Stores and Equipment, Lieutenant Colonel Richard Attara, told Citi News‘ Eugenia Tenkorang that, “Logistics generally is a challenge so naturally when it comes to disaster, you can’t say that you are fully prepared. We were not ready for it initially. We had to depend on the few resources within our department to handle the disaster until philanthropists started donating which supported our efforts.”
He said the hospital needs more equipment in order to improve care for patients during emergency situations.
“Apart from the medical consumables, we should have enough equipment in the form of structures. We should have enough equipment in the various wards to be able to handle emergency situations like patient monitors, automatic external defibrillators and well-equipped ambulances that can handle emergency situations out on the field,” Lieutenant Colonel Richard Attara said.
He continued that, “In the wards, you should have infusion pumps and blood gas analyzers so that we don’t have to run around monitoring patients. In reality, we don’t have them readily available,” he added.
About 150 people lost their lives on June 3, 2015, in floods caused by torrential rain, coupled with an explosion at the Goil Fuel Station at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra.
The facilities of the 37 Military Hospital and several others were put to test as hundreds of patients who sustained varying degrees of burns were conveyed there for treatment.
The Disaster Coordinator at the hospital, Colonel Nii Adjah Obodai, described the night of the disaster and the pressure the hospital underwent due to the number of patients they received.
“It was busy, nobody knew what the figures were. The extent of the injuries that came in that night made things really busy. It meant that whichever wards they were going to be moved to should have created space. We are good at that, we can evacuate people quickly, even discharge people at night and put others on the beds who need them. Even those who needed emergency care were taking care of on the floor in the consulting room as well as a minor theater,” he said.
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By: Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana