37 hospital invites 148 doctors who voted against strike

Source: Daily Graphic Ghana - Authorities at the 37 Military Hospital have called on public sector doctors who voted last Friday to resume work at a crucial meeting of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) to complement medical officers at the hospital to save lives.

One hundred and forty-eight doctors voted at the General Assembly meeting of the GMA to resume duty while 213 others voted for the status quo.

The Public Relations Officer of the 37 Military Hospital, Capt. Rita Anane, who made the appeal in an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra yesterday, impressed upon the Ministry of Health to post those148 doctors to the security hospital to reduce the stress on medical officers there.

The two major security hospitals in the country, the 37 Military Hospital and the Police Hospital, are now struggling to contain the pressure, especially with maternal and emergency cases, following the extension of the strike by the GMA.

The two facilities have become the main referral hospitals for the treatment of major health issues after most public hospitals withdrew their outpatient and emergency services to the public. Floor treatment

At the 37 Military Hospital yesterday, the Maternity Ward had about 40 expectant mothers, as well as mothers and their newborn babies on the floor.

Mattresses had been laid on the floor to accommodate women who were due for delivery since the wards were filled to capacity.

At the time of the visit, the Maternity, Emergency, Trauma and Surgical wards were in a crisis situation.

Some patients at the Emergency and the Trauma wards had to receive medical care in wheelchairs while others sat on plastic chairs. The situation, according to Capt. Anane, was due to the increased numbers at the wards and said that was taking a toll on the hospital.

“The Maternity Ward is a 50-bed facility, but due to the strike we now accommodate 90 expectant mothers daily.

From last week Thursday till Monday we had 808 patients registering with the Out-patient Department (OPD) while 2,027 visited the hospital for treatment,” she said.

She appealed to benevolent organisations, as well as the public, to support the hospital with medical supplies and equipment to facilitate quality healthcare delivery.

She said the hospital was in need of more beds and a restock of the blood bank

Meanwhile, she said, the Ministry of Health had posted 50 nurses to the hospital to support the medical officers.

Capt. Anane said the facility had, however, recorded some fatalities, as a result of patients arriving there late for treatment, but stated that the hospital was now collating the statistics. Corridor treatment

At the Police Hospital, five tents had been erected to serve as extensions of the Female and the Male wards to accommodate patients, since the main wards were filled to capacity.

Since the beginning of the strike, the number of patients who visit the hospital daily has shot up from the usual 300 to 500, a development which has put pressure on the limited resources of the hospital.

During a visit there, it was realised that the corridors of the Female, the Maternity and the Male wards were all crowded.

About 15 beds had been placed on the corridor of the Maternity Ward to accommodate expectant mothers.

The acting Public Relations Officer of the hospital, Corporal Faustina Nunekpeku, stated that the hospital had increased the number of medical officers at the OPD.

“The need has come to increase our bed capacity. That is why we have erected tents on the premises,” she said.

She, however, appealed to the public to support the hospital with wheelchairs, beds, oxygen concentrators, drip stands, drugs and consumables, stretchers, as well as ventilators.

The hospital, she said, would procure more drugs and consumables for it to contain the situation.