Health delivery in the Akatsi south district is a challenge, especially regarding decent accommodation for workers and staff of both the hospital and the health directorate.
Housing facilities which started a few years ago are stalled, making it very difficult for staff to work due to the unavailability of decent accommodation near the hospital.
According to some staff, some practitioners posted to the facility have left the hospital over challenges of getting decent accommodation, adding that the situation is also heavily affecting their service delivery.
Construction of flats for the staff, including expansion of the hospital theatre, wards, senior staff bungalows, and mortuary facilities, are still at a standstill, a situation which is affecting smooth delivery and has become worrying to the people.
The projects, female and male ward, 40 rooms storey building for staff, two senior staff bungalows, laundry block, recovery ward, theatre, and a mortuary department, all started in 2013 and expected to be completed in 2016 are at a standstill.
The contractor according to a worker who spoke on condition of anonymity, left the site since 2016.
A visit by Joy News to the hospital saw the deteriorating nature of the staff flats and uncompleted projects.
Paintings on the walls almost faded, weeds taken over the entire place, ceiling removed, birds taken over the rooms, items stolen from the rooms, and algae growing on most parts of the buildings.
The hospital, however, spends thirty thousand annually on staff accommodation alone, whiles the flats are left to rot, resulting in a waste of resources.
“Some of us stay very far from the hospital, and when there is an emergency at the hospital, it becomes a problem due to the distance between the hospital and our rented residences,” a staff lamented.
Aside from the accommodation issues, the main hospital also lacks some facilities to make work easier for them. Facilities like the medical superintendent’s office, recovery ward are urgently needed in the Akatsi Hospital.
A senior staff, joy news gathered, died as a result of lack of a recovery ward to monitor his recovery progress.
“And in the absence of the recovery wad, diagnosed patients who are supposed to spend more days in the hospital for further treatment are asked to go home for cultural medication, this to pave the way for new patients to get admission”, a staff lamented.
Akatsi South Health Director Dr George Nyarko said the situation is not good and has called on government to complete the project to accommodate the staff quickly.
According to Dr George Nyarko, having the staff on the premises would improve quality health delivery.
He noted that it is very important for the projects to be completed as soon as possible to enable the staff to work efficiently and effectively.
The hospital started in 1994 as a dental clinic became a health center in 1996 and was later upgraded to the level of district hospital in 2006 with a current critical staff strength of six medical doctors who are approved to train house in surgeons.
