Management of Amiah hospital in the Bolgatanga Municipality of the Upper East Region is appealing to government for logistical support for private healthcare providers to deliver timely services to clients in the wake of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
According to the facility, private health care facilities in the region are becoming overwhelmed by the negative impact of COVID-19 resulting in high maternal and other critical surgical referral cases from public health facilities but with no government support to meet the challenging situation.
The facility in April 2020 successfully conducted an unprecedented 108 deliveries under challenging conditions following the closure of the Bolgatanga regional hospital’s maternity block over COVID-19 fumigation.
Speaking to Citi News, Chief Executive Officer of the hospital, Dr. Aduko Amiah said, pregnant women and critically ill patients in remote areas risk poor health services if government does not intervene to support private facilities with critical consumables and Personal protective equipment.
“Until COVID-19, we used to see 150 clients a day and that was a huge number to be seen by this facility and without government support, it will be difficult to run this facility. Government PPE are not available to us and insurance wasn’t paying us, so it is difficult to purchase these items on our own.”
“We appeal for consumables such as surgical and gynaecological gloves, theatre equipment, PPE, and oxygen supply. As much as government is supporting public health care facilities with logistics, they should also support the private health facilities during this COVID-19 era”.
Dr. Amiah also appealed to philanthropists, NGO’s and other benevolent organizations to support the hospital in the area of beds, consumables, and other logistics to help them serve vulnerable patients in the area.
He also appealed for construction materials and financial support to complete an expansion project of the facility to augment the bed capacity of the facility and improve service delivery.
Some women who delivered at the facility told Citi News, their lives, and that of their unborn babies were at risk during the closure of the Bolga hospital maternity ward, but had successful deliveries at Amiah hospital under a challenging circumstance.
They thus called on government to support private health facilities.
Adiza Alitu said, “When I came to deliver, I saw other pregnant women who came from the Bolga regional hospital to deliver because the hospital’s maternity ward was closed due to the COVID-19 and all of us had a successful delivery. I did the operation and it was successful, same as my other colleagues who went through a caesarean section. But the doctors and nurses did very well for us. But for Amiah hospital, I don’t know where we would have gone to”.
“Some pregnant women who went to the Bolga regional hospital were also referred here and we all had a successful delivery without any complications. If this hospital(Amiah hospital) was not there, many pregnant women would have lost their lives, particularly at the time the Bolga regional hospital maternity ward was closed down due to COVID-19,” Mrs. Adegya Clara stated.
Established in 2012, Amiah hospital is the only private facility to have introduced the folderless or paperless system and remains the preferred hospital for residents in the Bolga with about 150 Out-Patient-Department attendances daily.
The facility continues to receive a visiting specialist from tertiary health providers in diverse areas, especially maternal health and surgical specialists.