The Administrator of the Kwesimintim Hospital, Felix Osei Kesse, has revealed that due to lack of space, pregnant women who give birth are immediately transferred onto mattresses on the floor to create space for other expectant mothers to be attended to.
According to Felix Kesse, because a number of the pregnant women come from far places, they have no other alternative than to resort to the hospital’s method to save the mother and the unborn baby.
“Some of these pregnant women come from maybe Mpohor and have travelled on rough roads, some have trekked long distances and are already suffering. What we do is that, we transfer a mother who is already on admission and has given birth to the floor bed where we have arranged mattresses.”
Felix Osei Kesse
Explaining further the hospital’s decision, Mr. Kesse posited that the authorities do this because should they turn away a pregnant woman already in labour to go somewhere else because they are challenged, the move may be disastrous to the pregnant woman and her unborn child.
“So, we have some beds on the corridor and we work with those.”
Felix Osei Kesse
Pressure on labour block
According to Mr. Osei Kesse, the pressure on the hospital’s labour block is immense, so much that he fears for the worse, should the situation remain unattended to.
“If you look at our labour ward, the cases are simply overwhelming to the extent that sometimes our weekly labour cases surpass that of Effia Nkwanta Regional hospital. Just look at Effia Nkwanta and look at us. So, imagine what we can do if we have space. We have 82 nurses at the labour unit.”
Felix Osei Kesse
Mr. Kesse indicated that when the facility was upgraded from a polyclinic into a hospital, it was only the name that changed and not the needed infrastructure upgrade.
“With the upgrade, we had to also introduce new services. So, we have eye clinic, dental clinic, ENT, health promotion, disease control, nutrition, mental health among others. So, ask yourself where we will get space for these new services to operate. These are accounting for the infrastructure challenges.”
Felix Osei Kesse
No Accident and Emergency block
Felix Osei Kesse added that there is no Accident and Emergency block at the hospital. He also pointed out that its makeshift children’s ward can only accommodate eight cots.
“We also don’t have a dedicated children’s block. What we have done is that we have divided the female ward and are using it to serve the children. So, if all the eight cots are occupied, we have to refer any new case. Mind you we have the needed personnel to take care of any case.”
Felix Osei Kesse
According to Mr. Kesse, the children are referred not because they cannot be taken care of, but simply because there is no space. He indicated that its makeshift accident and emergency place which is a converted old treatment room, has only three beds.
The Administrator revealed that there have been several efforts to get government to come to their aid but the situation remains the same.
“The First Lady has been here. The Deputy Health Minister has been here. The regional minister, MCE, MPs and all the high and might you can think of. But our infrastructure situation is the same. However, it is the MP for Kwesimintim, Dr. Prince Hamid Armah, who I will applaud. He has been supporting us.”
Felix Osei Kesse
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