Samuel Agbewode
19 June 2008
Kparekpare — The South Tongu District Hospital, at Sogakope, is confronted with serious internal and external problems, which are affecting healthcare delivery, hence needing urgent interventions to address the problems.
The problems included acute shortage of staff in all the departments, as an internal issue, and disruptions from some members of the community during working hours, being external, which did not guarantee a congenial working environment for the health workers.
This came to light when the Medical Superintendent of the hospital, Dr. F. E. Abude, made this known when the youth wing of the Apostles Revelation Society (ARS) Church, presented 260 mattresses and pillowcases to the facility, as part of activities marking the first-ever Youth Day celebration of the church at Sogakope.
Dr. Abude pointed out that in the case of nurses there were only forty-three at the hospital, instead of 110, which was making it difficult for them to cope with the increasing pressure.
The Medical Superintendent said due to the shortage, the few staff at the hospital overworked themselves, to the extent that they worked continuously, instead of running the normal shift system, a situation that was very stressful, and needed to be addressed.
Another issue Dr. Abude condemned, was the continuous harassment of the few personnel, as some members of the community visit the hospital, and misconduct themselves, especially when their relatives were on admission, adding that when such people requested to see patients at odd times, and the personnel in-charge informed them that due to medication the patient was resting, they verbally assaulted the staff.
Dr. Abude recounted how some students, assaulted the security personnel of the hospital a few weeks ago, because the officer told them that they had come at a time when it was not visiting hours, with the students taking offence and beating up the personnel.
Furthermore, the Medical Superintendent said lack of accommodation for staff, was affecting the morale of the health workers, as most of them, who were in rented private houses, paid exorbitant rent advances, which was highly demoralizing.
Dr. Agude disclosed that due to the unfriendly working environment, some of the staff had started asking for transfers, noting that the situation would also deter others from accepting postings to the hospital.
He said as a result of shortage of personnel at the hospital, the management adopted a strategy to lure nurses to the hospital, as those student nurses in the final year and on practicals, were being paid the final registration fees, with the agreement that they would come and work at the hospital.
Dr. Abude, therefore, appealed to the government, to help address the problems, to ensure peace of mind for the workers at the hospital, to enhance effective healthcare provision.
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