The Intensive Care Unit of the Korle-Bu Reconstructive Plastic Surgery and Burns Centre has not been functioning since it was inaugurated in 2010 by the Former First Lady, Ernestina Naadu Mills.
The situation, according to the Director of the Korle-Bu Reconstructive Plastic Surgery and Burns Centre, Dr. Opoku Ware Ampomah, is leading to needless loss of human lives.
Out of the three facilities inaugurated on that day, only the Reproductive Health Centre is fully functional.
The DNA and the Burns Units are not functioning as they have not been fully fortified with the necessary medical equipment.
The Director of the Korle-Bu Reconstructive Plastic Surgery and Burns Centre, Dr. Opoku Ware Ampomah told journalists the neglect of the intensive care unit has caused people to die when they could have been saved.
“People who come in with severe burns need to be placed in an intensive care unit which is currently unavailable,” Dr. Ampomah lamented.
”Accommodation is always a problem; we always have crowded out-patients and small bed spaces. Sometimes there are people who should be admitted but we can’t. Sometimes people have minor burns that they could have survived, but because of the lack of an ICU unit, they lose their lives.”
“A glimpse at the survival statistics indicates that, the average burn victim in the UK with a 30-40% of their bodies burnt has a survival chance of about 90%; a burn of 80% of their body has a survival chance of about 70%, unlike in our environment where someone with a 30-40% burn has a survival chance about of about 40% which is not the best” he noted.
During a visit to the Korle Bu Reconstructive Plastic Surgery and Burns Centre, Citi News observed that on the third floor of the three-storey facility, thieves had broken through the window and ripped out electrical wires in the building.
$2 million dollars needed
Dr. Opoku Ware Ampomah is appealing to benevolent individuals and corporate institutions to come to aid of the Korle-Bu Burns Unit.
“We see an average of about 600 burn cases every year with a mortality rate of about 30%, this figure is something we can drive down” he stated.
According to him, about two million dollars is needed to get the abandoned intensive care unit fully functional.
“The power of the individual should not be underestimated in helping get the unit running. After the June 3 disaster, mortality figures at the burns centre dropped because there were enough items donated by individuals that were used to treat patients. Out of all the victims from the June 3 disaster who were brought in, one person died because there was no ICU to take care of him.”
Some of the equipment needed to get the center fully functional are Blood Gas Stabilizers, a generating plant, shower trolleys and oxygen plants. The unit currently has only one bath trolley.
The Korle Bu Reconstructive Plastic Surgery and Burns Centre is the largest of the three burns centres in the country.
The other two are at the Okomfo Anokye Teaching Hospital and the 37 Military Hospital.
This unit houses six of the twelve plastic surgeons in the country.
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By: Kwame Botchway/Citifmonline.com/Ghana