Ketu Hospital gathering dust

Almost two years after the inauguration of a new municipal hospital in the Ketu North Municipality in the Volta Region, the facility is yet to be put into use.

The hospital at Weta, near Dzodze was commenced in 2018 and inaugurated in October 2020, but currently has only some workers of the contractor, VAMED Engineering, occupying the infrastructure.

Its various components, including an out-patients department, emergency unit with a waiting ambulance, a laboratory, a rehabilitation centre, an obstetric and neonatal unit, a surgical ward, general bed ward, and a mortuary, are fully furnished.

It also has an administration block, staff changing facility, kitchen and laundry unit, a waste management unit, and a seven-unit two-bedroom staff accommodation.

The outer and inner perimeters are fitted with fire hydrants, backup power generators and some six solar systems.

Various logistics in the spaces, however, have started collecting dust.

Completed work

In an interview, the Site Engineer, Mr Michael Adu Adjei, said "everything is complete. There's nothing more to be done".

He said they had been waiting for the past seven months to hand over the facility to the appropriate authorities, and said he could not explain why the hospital had not been operationalised.

Some logistical installations at the facility

“You will have to speak to the authorities in Accra for any explanation. We have finished with our work, and you can see all the equipment are in place,” he said.

Meanwhile, some residents of Weta, Dekpor, Dzodze and surrounding areas have appealed for the hospital to be put into use to deliver better health services to the people in the municipality.

They noted also that the hospital could offer employment for persons qualified to work at the facility, thereby reducing the unemployment figures in the area.

Distant services

One of the residents, Mr Setor Adam, said the people of Weta had to travel long distances to seek health care at the St Anthony Catholic Hospital at Dzodze or travel to Abor for same, and had, therefore, looked forward to the opening of the new hospital upon its inauguration.

“We have been waiting to see doctors and nurses to start working here, but nothing is happening,” he lamented.

Indeed, the 25 minutes drive from Weta to Dzodze was an unpleasant experience, as narrated by another resident, Mr Aglidi Sewornu, about how he managed to hold on to life on the dusty, pothole-riddled road to seek medical help at Dzodze.

His wife, then pregnant with their first child, also endured the contoured road when she was in labour to deliver the baby, he said.

Mr Sewornu said the experiences forced them to seek a home delivery method for their second child.

An officer of the Ghana Health Service, who pleaded anonymity, said the continued closure of the facility had to do with financial clearance for staff.

“There has not been financial clearance to post people into the hospital,” the officer said.