The Member of Parliament for Juaboso Constituency and a Ranking Member of the Health Committee of Parliament, Hon. Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, has stated that the Health Committee will summon the Minister of Health to answer questions about the deteriorating health facilities and healthcare provision nationwide.
He indicated that health facilities must be provided with the necessary equipment. He stated that the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), which is the recent addition to deplorable health facilities, has a certain amount of pressure on it usually during the second half of the year.
He disclosed that the former President, John Dramani Mahama had attempted to solve this issue by completing the construction of other health facilities close to KATH to act as complementary facilities to it however, his efforts did not see fruition.
“If we complete these major hospitals within the enclave, it will automatically reduce the pressure on Komfo Anokye. That is the idea, what we are looking at, and then expanding and renovating Komfo Anokye. Quiet recently I showed some of the sick hospitals on the floor of the house, that way, we can get them [the government] to do the right thing, but these are people [the government] who don’t really care”.
Hon. Kwabena Mintah Akandoh
Hon. Kwabena Akandoh further argued that if the government was a responsible one, it would be providing answers to Ghanaians as to why the health sector is deteriorating. He advised that the Minister of Health must immediately investigate the cause of the issue and provide solutions to the problems the health sector seems to be embroiled in.
He clarified that due to the recent cabinet reshuffle conducted by the President, the Minister of Health nominee cannot appear before the Health Committee until he is cleared by the Vetting Committee of Parliament. He assured that as and when that is done, the Minister will be summoned immediately to answer to the Health Committee why the health sector is in such a deplorable state.
Ghana’s Deplorable Health Sector
Meanwhile, coupled with the deteriorating infrastructure and the ailing Dialysis Center at the KATH, the hospital is hugely understaffed which puts a lot of pressure on health practitioners and personnel working at the hospital.
Mr. Frimpong, Head of Public Relations of KATH, indicated that due to the number of patients that visit the hospital daily, the medical staff of the hospital is hugely stressed due to the workload they undertake.
Furthermore, the Minister of State Designate for Health recently during his vetting by the Vetting Committee justified the demolishing of the La General Hospital in 2018. While it is in good faith to demolish a structural hazard, the hospital has not been rebuilt, leaving the people of La and its environs with the difficulty of accessing healthcare outside the community and the financial burden that comes with it.
Adding to the list of deplorable healthcare facilities is the Tema Manhean Polyclinic in the Tema Metropolis of the Greater Accra Region. The polyclinic, which serves as the sole healthcare facility for the densely populated town of Tema Manhean, has sections of it, including the Out Patients Department (OPD) and various offices, which suffer from leakages whenever it rains. The government has since done nothing about the state of the building after the issue has been reported.
As though the plight of falling structures at various health facilities is not enough, the gross understaffing of these health facilities is alarming. Ironically, there are qualified unemployed healthcare givers whom the government failed to mechanize into the workforce.
Recently the Ghana Unemployed Nurses and Midwives Association (GUNMA) in Tamale undertook a demonstration to make known their concerns and demands. The GUNMA indicated that the government continues to neglect qualified nurses and midwives to favor undertrained healthcare givers in matters of employment. The group also stressed the poor condition of service of healthcare workers that necessitates their leaving the country to find jobs abroad.
In the interim, the Ministry of Health’s promise to find a lasting solution to the concerns of healthcare workers has not seen fruition in the last couple of years as the exodus of healthcare workers continues to increase daily.
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