IN the early fifties, Asamankese, currently the capital of the West Akyem Municipality, was a very small town composed mainly of farmers.
Its strategic position, between the diamond mining towns of Akyem Oda and Akwatia as well as trading centres of Suhum and Nsawam and the cultivation of cocoa and other food crops in its outlying areas over the years, have attracted many people to the town to engage in farming and trading in all sorts of merchandise.
The town initially lacked a hospital or clinic to cater for the health needs of the people. For that reason its inhabitants had to travel long distances to places like Koforidua and Accra where such facilities were available. That was a risky venture for those who were seriously ill.
To solve that problem, a health centre was, therefore, constructed for the town in 1956, at a time when its population and that of the adjoining villages was about 15,000.
Since the population kept on growing each passing year, it became necessary to upgrade the status of the health centre to a full hospital to cope with the increasing number of people.
However, it is sad to note that the facility, which started operating as a hospital in December, 1995 by offering services such as medicine, surgery, eye care, in-patient admissions and anti-retroviral therapy for HIV and AIDS patients and a centre for tuberculosis, is faced with serious challenges, especially inadequate infrastructure.
This is because most of the facilities provided in the early fifties have not been expanded to cater for the growing number of patients, especially at a time when the district has beeen upgraded to a municipality with about 172,297 inhabitants (according to the 2008 population estimates).
The only additional facility, a new 80-bed maternity ward, whose construction started 10 years ago, is at a standstill with no hope of completion because the contractor has packed away from the site.
The situation has put pressure on the very small improvised structure being used as maternity ward as women being prepared for delivery and newly-born babies have to sleep on the floor due to the limited number of beds and space.
There is also no residential accommodation for key health personnel, except the two medical doctors and a few others while most of the medical equipment too are very old.
Furthermore, health workers and patients live in fear because the hospital has not been fenced, making all manner of people visit the place unhindered.
Another big challenge is the erratic reimbursement of health insurance claims, periodically depriving the hospital the needed funds for its day-to-day running, especially for the payment of its 40 casual workers.
On the whole, the staff position of the hospital cannot be described as the best because it has two medical doctors, namely Dr Martin Klutse and Dr V.A. Mensah, with a medical assistant, Mr Edward Atiso, and 36 professional nurses and a few others, offering assistance.
However, with the co-operation of the Hospital Administrator, Mr Kwame Ampadu Adjei, the facility has been able to provide proper medical care for patients who patronise the facility, averaging 150 per day.
“Despite the difficulties we are facing, we are able to cater for about 150 patients who report at the Out-Patient Department every day. This year, 22,437 patients out of which 85 per cent were covered by the health insurance scheme came here with different diseases of which 2,467 were admitted,” he stated.
Mr Adjei said “The facility is in a peculiar situation because it is the only hospital in the area which also serves as a referral point for health centres at Osenase and Adeiso as well as other private clinics”.
“Although the number of patients keeps on increasing each passing day, we are able to serve everybody to their satisfaction”, he stated.
Some of the diseases and medical cases are malaria, hernia, pneumonia, anaemia, skin diseases, pregnancy and related complications, mental disorders as well as accident victims, especially motor accidents.
A significant aspect of the hospital is that it has been recording low maternal and neo-natal deaths.
For instance, it registered three maternal deaths in 2005, one in 2006, four in 2007, four more in 2008 and two so far this year while three neo-natal deaths occurred in 2005, two each in 2006 and 2007 and three each in 2008 and 2009.
With such a credible performance of the hospital in the midst of such difficulties, it is expected that the Ministry of Health would endeavour to find a lasting solution to its numerous challenges, especially the early completion of the maternity ward, to ensure that the facility, the only one in a fast growing municipality, would be well equipped.
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