*Talensi District Hospital is battling an infrastructure crisis
*Talensi District Hospital operates from separate locations
*Female and male wards were together and the ward could only take 8 beds
*Children Ward could take only 9 beds especially with 5 beds and 4 cots
*When patients are 10, Talensi district hospital will be forced to discharge a patient on admission to pave way for others.
*The road leading to the hospital is bad, causing staff, patient to fall including pregnant women.
An investigation done by Ngamegbulam Chidozie Stephen of Apexnewsgh.com about the plight of the Talensi District Hospital revealed that the hospital operates from two different locations with improper health standard operating systems. Apexnewsgh.com report
A facility that was upgraded from a health center to a district hospital in 2014 can only boast of eight (8) beds for adults male and female wards which is combined due to lack of infrastructure. The kids too are not left out.
At the Talensi District Hospital, Kids are paired in one bed and the reason is that the hospital can boast of just nine beds comprising of 5 beds and 4 cots in the small space made available as a kids ward and that also serves as an office for the nurses on duty.
Regrettably, Talensi a district with a human population of 101,132 and one of the best in West Africa blessed with God-given natural resources such as gold, cannot boast of a modern district hospital for the entire district. They cannot boast of good roads and even good drinking water. Isn’t that pathetic?
Officials at the facility who narrated their plights and predicaments about the hospital tells me they wished they were part of the government agenda 111 which is about to benefit 8 districts in the Upper East Region.
However, below is an interaction I had with some of the hospital officials during my visit to the hospital.
For the sake of this investigation, I chose to call the official who spoke to me as AKOS
According to AKOS, “Talensi District Hospital is a very young hospital about 7 years of age and our challenge here is infrastructure and actually, we have two sites. It was a health center that was upgraded into a hospital and since the upgrade, we have not had any major infrastructure here. The assembly built one for us to use for emergencies as an emergency ward, and we have maternity and nicu at a different site. This is to secure land that was given for the facility to build a district hospital. So, this has created a lot of challenges for us. That place is only the maternity, the theater and nicu that is there, every other service is rendered at this site and so, the patient will come and take folder here walk to that place and if they need a drug, they have to walk from 4 or 5 kilometers and come here, if they need to do a lab, they have to walk from there and come here, is a very big challenge for us. We wish we could have all activities in one place so that it will be convenient for us and the patient as well.
“We don’t have the infrastructure, the male and female wards were together, and we have to separate the male and the female and where we are using could only take 8 beds. So, if we have more than 8 patients we have to either move them to the emergency or have to discharge some of our patients so that we make way for others. If we could get a big ward that could help with about 30 because we do surgery and when we do surgery, the patient has to stay but, because of the limited number, we can’t do more surgery”. She narrated
“Our Kids Ward, can take only 9 beds especially with 5 beds and 4 cots and around this season we get a lot of admission for children because of malaria and anemia, in a day we could admit up to 10 patients. Where do we keep them? So, sometimes, we are forced to pair two kids on one bed which is not the best. So, we wish we could get a big ward for the children as well as the adult that is the main problem we are facing here currently.
And this is a referral center for the district and so if patients come and because of the situation we have to refer further, not because we can’t render the service but because we have a limited place, we have to refer further”. She said
“Our hospital isn’t far from the main town and actually when it rained, the whole place is so bad. Is just this year that fortunately someone came and pour gravel on the road so that is why is a bit better now. When it rained, we record about three or four staff falling and that place is for maternity and so, pregnant women going there and falling. If they could tar the whole road for us, so that the patient, client, and staff falling will stop we will be grateful”.
However, the Talensi District Health Director Madam Estella Abazesi confirmed the plight of the hospital when Apexnewsgh.com called on her for more clarifications.
She said, …in terms of logistics to build it up to the capacity of a district hospital we are lacking. We do not run all the compliment of a district hospital, is not all the services that we render.
