Health facilities from CHPS compound to higher institutions must create a small holding place to observe patients and take their samples for testing.

Dr. Anthony Nsiah Asare, Director-General of the GHS, gave the directive when he paid a working visit to the Tema General Hospital, the first health facility to record a Lassa Fever case in Ghana.

[contextly_sidebar id=”owtdfqMZZVSZKMSyKvqgXvZeLklcaMRW”]The Director General added that, the hospitals after isolating the suspected patient, should immediately report the case to the respective supervising district health directorate for a management team to be dispatched to the place for assessment.

The team he stated, would provide the needed transportation when the need to refer to the infectious centre arises.

The directive is to curb the unnecessary spread of the disease through transporting and handling of a suspected patients from one hospital to the other.

Dr. Asare said even though TGH has the only working infectious disease centre, transferring suspected Lassa fever case to Tema could lead to a spread of the disease.

He explained that due to the lack of proper health transportation for referred patients, the probability of spreading the disease through referral was high.

“A referred suspected patient can vomit in the taxi which will end up at the washing bay and subsequently spread the disease to others as the driver does not know what sickness the patient is suffering from”, he noted.

Dr. Asare indicated that other measures put in place to ensure the containment of the disease included temperature checking of people at the country’s entry points.

He added that the 32 Ghanaian health officials who helped in the control of Ebola in Liberia were also being contacted to help prevent the spread of Lassa Fever in Ghana.

He commended the TGH for effectively diagnosing and holding the deceased Lassa Fever patient, and assured that health officials of the hospital who worked on the patient were being monitored.

The Director -General said plans were underway to make the hospital a secondary referral point especially for infectious disease.

Dr. John Yabani, Tema Metropolitan Health Director, in a welcome address, thanked the Director-General and his entourage for visiting the hospital to assure health officials of their support.

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Source: GNA

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Relatives and Health officials at the facility who came into contact with the deceased are being monitored.

[contextly_sidebar id=”PC1aNVXFitG7zaQTFNja8oiYTChbECG0″]The Ghana Health Service had issued an alert on the disease to all Regional Directors of Health Services and CEOs of Teaching Hospitals, urging the various health institutions to enhance surveillance for Lassa fever and Acute Haemorrhagic fevers in general.

The alert followed the outbreak of the fever in Nigeria. The World Health Organization (WHO) has said it is teaming up with national and international health agencies to tackle what has been noted to be the country’s biggest outbreak.

The latest figures show 1,081 suspected cases of the disease, including 90 deaths.

This number is more than the 305 cases reported all of last year in Nigeria.

Meanwhile, authorities of the Ghana Health Service have told Citi News they are currently in a meeting to find a solution to the outbreak.

General information on Lass fever

Lassa fever is an Acute Viral Haemorrhagic Fever illness which is endemic in West Africa. The incubation period is 6-21 days.

The onset of the fever has non-specific signs and symptoms but fever, general weakness and malaise have been noted in its early stages.

This is followed by headaches, sore throat, muscle pain, chest pain, vomiting, diarrhoea and abdominal pains.

Severe cases may progress to show facial swelling, and bleeding.

Shock, seizures, disorientation, and coma may be seen in the late stages.

About 80 % of Lassa Fever infections are mild or asymptomatic.

WHO has said the best way to prevent the disease is by promoting good community hygiene to discourage rodents that spread the disease from entering homes.

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By: Zoe Abu Baidoo/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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Built in 1966, the Tema General Hospital is the only referral hospital within the Tema metropolis, and it caters for about 900,000 patients.

Despite having a vast land at its disposal, the hospital still struggles with inadequate space.

The hospital decided to renovate and expand its theatre with internally generated funds ahead of the CAN 2008 tournament, and possibly fit it with the latest equipment to meet demands at the time.

But the entrance to the building has been closed with wood nailed to the walls to prevent intruders. The wood meant for roofing looked very dry and old with termites eating away portions of it.

The Medical Superintendent in charge of the facility, Dr. Kwabena Edusei Poku, recounted to Citi News that “there was an old theatre that we wanted to expand for the CAN 2008, we couldn’t finish and we didn’t have internally generated funds so it has stalled. We are now looking for investments to continue it.”

A few metres away from the theatre, is the huge maternity block which is supposed to ease the pressure on the overcrowded existing maternity ward.

Abandoned Maternity ward

The months of May, June, July, are considered peak seasons where high deliveries are recorded, but the unavailability of space sometimes compels nursing mothers to share single beds during such peak seasons.

This very project was started in 2010 under the then Atta Mills administration, but was abandoned due to the lack of funds. The wood meant for construction works is wasting away with some iron rods giving way.

Whilst the hospital authorities are making frantic efforts to get it completed, some squatters have already made it a home.

Dr. Opoku Adusei noted that, this project “was supposed to have taken 13 or 14 months to complete. The contractor tells me that he was not being paid.”

completed but abandoned Morgue

The hospital’s woes continue with an abandoned morgue that was also constructed under the Atta Mills administration, but has been abandoned.

Though the project has been fully completed, failure on the part of the contractor to take into consideration external drainage works has rendered the facility almost useless.

The project since 2012 has not been used. But Dr. Adusei appears optimistic, saying “we are in touch with the new administration and it appears they are more interested so they are working on it. The Minister of Health came here to look at all those things and I think they are receiving attention. Just this morning, we received an important visitor to come and look at it so I am sure government knows and it is receiving attention.”

Abandoned health facilities

This comes on the back of Citi News’ consistent report on some completed but abandoned health projects scattered across the country.

They include abandoned CHPS compound at Ofankor, Tetegu, Teshie all in  Accra.

Other major ones that have been reported by Citi FM are the $217 million University of Ghana Medical Centre, the Bank of  Ghana Hospital and the solar-powered medical centre at the Volo Digital Village in the Volta Region.

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By: Elvis Washingtom/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Theatre, maternity ward, morgue projects abandoned at Tema General Hospital appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

According to the couple, the hospital has failed to provide convincing answers on what caused the death of the babies more than seven years after the unfortunate incident.

In a Citi News interview, the father of the babies, Amankwah Addo, threatened to sue the Hospital and the Ministry of Health if their concerns are not addressed.

“It is a case of medical negligence that resulted in the death of the twin babies. The Minister of Health told us they were investigating. They had us get our lawyers to write to them to find the state of the investigation but till date, seven years on, we are hearing nothing.”

The couple is now fed up with the situation because they feel they are being taken for granted by the Ministry.

“We are taking it up now because we think the ministry has taken us for granted. They fooled us and they have denied us the right to know what caused the death of our baby. They have denied us our right to even bury the babies because they kept the babies at the Korle Bu mortuary claiming they were carrying out investigations.”

Amankwah Addo said all his family needed was some support to follow through with the threat of legal action.

“Now we want support to get legal representation to pursue the matter in court because we think the Ministry is not acting in good faith.”

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By: Pearl Akanya Ofori/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Couple demand justice for dead twin babies appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The 40-bed maternity block would comprise of a 20-bed first stage ward, and another 20-bed lying in ward with one theatre. It would also have a 7-bed monitoring and recovery ward, nurses’ station and changing rooms, sluice rooms, pantry and store, two consultation rooms, two doctors’ office and restrooms, nurses’ office and nurses’ restroom.

The facility will further have a kitchen and eatery, washrooms and reception.

This comes in the wake of challenges pregnant women face with regards to space at the hospital when they go for treatment.

The Tema General Hospital, which is the third highest in terms of deliveries in the country, lacks enough space to accommodate pregnant women each time they visit the facility for care.

The Executive Director of Scancom Ghana Limited, Mrs. Cynthia Lumor, announced this when she paid a working visit to the site to see the progress of work

She announced that the project which started around November 2016, is scheduled to be ready by September this year.

The Medical Superintendent of the Tema General Hospital, Dr. Kwabena Opoku-Edusei, who took the team round the site, expressed the hospital’s appreciation for the construction of such a facility as it would go a long way to ease the pressure at the wards.
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By: Elvis Washington/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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The hospital in a statement issued on Tuesday [February 14], and signed by Dr. Kwabena Opoku-Adusei, Medical Director of the Hospital, stated that it had put in place official procedures for depositing and retrieving dead bodies from its morgue.

[contextly_sidebar id=”BIrolKYxZKgVPOYNyRV4FbAqo84K55Nr”]It noted that persons who do not follow the official procedure were involved in rather informal arrangements that do not bind the hospital.

There was drama at the Tema Community Nine Cemetery on Saturday, when two mortuary men from the Tema General Hospital aggressively removed a dead body from its coffin at the cemetery, over the refusal of the bereaved family to pay an amount of GHc 150 as undertaking charges.

The incident, which was a surprise to many, happened in the full glare of family members and sympathizers of the bereaved family, who had gone to lay their dead to rest.

In a state of shock, the sympathizers who had gone to the cemetery to mourn with the bereaved family, stood helplessly, as they looked on while the body was removed from the coffin by the two angry mortuary men.

Some family members at the cemetery finally contributed to pay GHc100.00 of the debt before the corpse was released to them for burial.

The incident has since been described as unfortunate by the hospital, but it said, “Management has set up processes to look into the case of the individual involved.”

It said any staff who brought the name of the Hospital into disrepute would be disciplined in accordance with the Code of Conduct and the disciplinary process of the Ghana Health Service.

It also warned that it would hand over any patient who attempted to abscond from the Hospital after recovery to the Police for legal action.

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Source: GNA

The post Tema General Hospital to investigate ‘dead body seizure’ case appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

During the commissioning and handing over the facility to the hospital management, Mr Isaac Ashai Odamtten, Tema Metropolitan Chief Executive, said the facility was constructed to help improve the provision of quality maternal services in the Metropolis.

[contextly_sidebar id=”jIgJczBDqbEYqw4xVuaILenrTecZontm”]Mr Odamtten said it was disheartening for the hospital to lose over 16 women during child birth within the first quarter of 2016.

He noted that it was the prime responsibility of the Assembly to provide the needed infrastructure and environment to support government’s policy on an improved health sector.

The MCE mentioned that the TMA had already provided the hospital with a generator, male ward an ultra-modern maternity and an improved water supply.

Dr John Yabani, Tema Metropolitan Health Director, also  expressed hope that the new maternity ward would help expand service delivery on maternity health adding that the directorate had battled so much with maternal deaths in the Metropolis.

Dr Yabani stated that a research conducted by his outfit into the high maternity death rate in the Metropolis revealed that congestion, especially at the wards, contributed greatly to it.

He explained that it was difficult for health officials to monitor patients especially those who had undergone surgery in such a congested ward.

He urged health officials of TGH to brace themselves to receive and care for patients in a bid to lift the good image of the hospital.

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Source: GNA

The post TMA builds maternity ward for Tema General Hospital appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.