The under-resourced Lungni Health Center in the Nanumba South District of the Northern Region which has not seen any renovation works for close to thirty years, is begging for attention.
The facility, according to the managers, is faced with serious challenges ranging from inadequate no- consumables, poor storage facilities, and inadequate accommodation for staff, poor sanitation and insufficient means of transport among many others.
Isaac Dapilah, a Physician Assistant in charge of the facility in an interview with Citi News, explained that the facility lacks space and needs expansion as the number of clients who visit the center has increased over the years.
He also said the health center has only one detention room and they have improvised a shift system to serve as a detention room for in-patients.
“Currently, our facility needs serious expansion, the clientele has increased and there is no space to accommodate them. We have just a single room as our detention room and a number of patients are being attended to in the open. We have this makeshift structure also serving as a detention room. We are appealing for an expansion of the center.”
Benches are used as bed for patients including women who deliver and have to rest for some time before being discharged.
The Member of Parliament for Wulensi constituency, Hon. Thomas Donkor Ogaaja, has however donated ten hospital beds to the facility to argument the situation.
The center for the past two years has not recorded any maternal death, and over fifty deliveries are recorded monthly at the center.
Alidu Alimatu Sadia, a midwife at the center, told Citi News that the ward has only one delivery bed and women in waiting have to be laid on the floor or on benches.
She also bemoaned the poor state of the facility, adding that staff at the center are compelled to sometimes use their clothes to cover the windows because louvers have broken and certain individuals peep through the windows during deliveries.
“We have only one delivery bed and other women in labour have to wait on benches or on the floor. Here our biggest challenge is privacy, the louvers are broken and we use our clothes to cover the windows during delivery because people usually peep through the windows. We also have inadequate supply of non-consumables. We are appealing to the authorities especially the MP to come to our aid. Our facility needs serious expansion and renovation” Alimatu Sadia said.
Some patients who visited the facility also spoke to Citi News on the challenges they usually have to go through any time they visit the center.
“We want the government to come and build a new hospital for us. This one the people are more than the facility. The building too is old, no doors and windows. Equipment are usually stolen from the center. No beds, benches are used as beds.”
The center is serving over 40 communities in the area and almost 2000 people. The people are mostly farmers, and snake bites are usually common in the area.
The MP, Hon. Ogaaja also procured 100 vials of Anti – Snake Vernon for the Nanumba South Health directorate to be distributed to all health centers and CHPS compounds in the district.
“We want to thank the MP for the donation and also appeal to him to come and build a new hospital for us. We are appealing that they should come to our aid. Anytime it’s raining, there is no place for us. People are beaten by the rains because patients are being attended to in the open. We are appealing for help’’ another patient said.
–
By: Mohammed Aminu M. Alabira/citinewsroom.com/Ghana
