EFFIA-NKWANTA HOSPITAL LACKS EQUIPMENT FOR DISASTER MANAGEMENT (PAGE 25)

The Effia-Nkwanta Hospital in Takoradi will be found wanting in the event of a major disaster, since the hospital lacks the necessary equipment, logistics, structures and monitors for proper and effective management of disasters and emergencies.
Besides, the location of the hospital itself, which is situated on a hilly landscape, has also rendered it incapable of dealing effectively with any major disaster as it is difficult for one to get easy access to the hospital’s facilities.
The Deputy Western Regional Director of Clinical Care, Dr Robert Sagoe, announced this at a press briefing and the launch of this year’s World Disaster Reduction Day in Sekondi, which was held on the theme: "Hospitals safe from disaster".
He has, therefore, called for the construction of a new and modern hospital to replace the Effia-Nkwanta Hospital, since it would go a long way to facilitate the effective and proper health delivery and management of emergencies.
"Visit the hospital to enable you to appreciate the need for new structures and equipment to meet the modern-day disaster management," he told the Regional Disaster Management Committee, saying "we have the personnel, but lack the structures and equipment".
Dr Sagoe also urged them to take measures to secure the lives of people in times of emergencies, adding that "to save lives we are seriously handicapped".
He explained that with the oil find in the Western Region, there would be an influx of people to the region, since there would be an increase in economic activities and that people may be taking a lot of risks.
He further explained that the Effia-Nkwanta Hospital, the third largest hospital in the country, after the Korle Bu and Komfo Anokye Teaching hospitals, was constructed as a centre for the screening of military personnel for the Second World War and was later converted into a hospital with various structures added to it.
Dr Sagoe suggested that if a new hospital was constructed, the old structures could be used as a district hospital to support the Takoradi and Kwesimintsim hospitals.
The Deputy Western Regional Minister and Chairman of the Regional Disaster Management Committee, Mr Kwasi Blay, explained that the theme for this year’s celebration was to create awareness about what needed to be done to protect the lives of patients and health personnel by ensuring the structural resilience of health facilities.
"There is the need to look at existing hospital structures and ask ourselves whether they were put up taking into consideration natural disaster occurrences. Let’s ask ourselves whether our hospitals, as they are now, can withstand any of the known natural hazards," he said.
He further explained that the celebration was to ensure that health facilities and services were able to function in the aftermath of emergencies and disasters when they were most needed, adding, "Disasters, both natural and man-made, strike without giving any warning signals and their effects, especially to human life, could be very devastating."
Therefore, he stressed that it was very important to take measures to sustain the hospitals, so that they could function during and after emergencies.
Also, he said, it was to create awareness of the need to improve the risk reduction capacity of health workers and institutions, especially during emergency management periods.
"We cannot talk of effective handling of disasters when the health workers and the institutions themselves do not have the capacity to withstand disasters or to reduce their impact," he said.
Mr Blay said as major stakeholders, the health workers and institutions needed to increase their risk reduction capacity in order to be able to withstand the impact of any major disaster.
The Western Regional Co-ordinator of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), Mr Kofi Yonkopah Arthur, said the focus of all energies and attention would be on the occurences and impact of disasters, and called for concerted efforts towards disaster awareness.