Korle Bu Stroke Unit under-utilised

The Head of the Department of Medicine of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Professor Margaret Lartey, says the Stroke Unit of the hospital is under-utilised.

She said the unit was performing only at 50 per cent capacity due to inadequate funding and lack of human resource.

“We are running at 50 per cent as at any time we have only 10 beds occupied because the staff here can only cater for 10 patients. We need a multi- disciplinary team, we need doctors, nurses, dieticians, physiotherapists, we need speech and language therapists, among others, and we have difficulty in the numbers of the staff that we have” she stated

She added that though the 20-bed unit was small, “ we are not even able to use the 20 beds because we don’t have enough staff to go round, and those are the challenges that the stroke unit faces. People are trying to get their patients in here but because we do not have enough staff we always turn them away”   

Donation to unit

Professor Lartey said this to the Daily Graphic in Accra after she had received medical equipment worth more than GH¢300,000 which was donated by the  Ghanaian Community in Oklahoma, United States. 

This is the second time the group has supported the unit with medical equipment.

The items included portable patient monitors with accompanying stand rolls, feeding pumps,  feeding bags, digital blood pressure monitors, tetrapod canes, stability balls, thera-bands, kinesiotapes, wheel chairs and walkers.

Prof. Lartey noted the increase in stroke cases among Ghanaians.

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She attributed this to behavioural actions such as unhealthy dieting and lack of exercise among the citizenry, and urged Ghanaians to take their dieting seriously and also exercise regularly. 

The Head of the Stroke Unit, Dr  Albert Akpalo, said the items would help improve health care.