It is becoming extremely difficult for the St. John of God Hospital at Duayaw Nkwanta in the Tano North Municipality of the Ahafo Region to handle most neonatal cases.
This is a result of limited space, incubators and other vital equipment used in addressing the increasing number of premature babies and newly-borns with neonatal complications.
In 2019, the unit recorded 441 neonatal cases out of which 66 were premature cases.
With the challenges facing the Neonatal Unit, the Deputy in charge of the unit, Jacqueline Nwinkom Dapila has told Citi News, the facility has no option than to resort to the use of non-standardized procedures to manage the situation.
“We have limited space here. With the incubators, because there are not enough of them, we sometimes have to put preterms in one incubator which is not the best. So sometimes, there are cross infections. It is a challenge for us. We also don’t have a radiant warmer here. Sometimes the babies come with low temperature and because we do not have that, we improvise.”
The St. John of God Hospital is a major referral facility in the Tano North Municipality of the Ahafo Region.
It serves over 300 communities.
The facility also attends to patients from the Ashanti and Bono Regions.