Savelugu hospital will reopen soon — Management

The Savelugu Municipal Hospital, which was closed down for recording several COVID-19 cases among its staff, is set to reopen any moment soon.

The shutdown was to enable management of the facility to put in place measures to protect its staff and users of the hospital from further contracting the virus.

Last Wednesday, the management of the hospital saw to the disinfection of all tools and rooms to enable the hospital to return to operation.

Addressing the media, the Administrator of the hospital, Ms Alice Tengfah, said the disinfection made it ready to accept patients and to offer services to the general public.

"A successful fumigation makes the facility ready to reopen. However, since the decision to close down the facility was taken by management, the reopening date is going to be decided by management. I cannot specifically say that the facility will be reopened on this particular day," the administrator said.

Partial operation

She, however, indicated that while the hospital was closed down, the emergency and maternity units were still in operation, since service at those units were critical.

According to her, to protect the remaining members of staff who were still providing services at the emergency and maternity units, the hospital was ensuring very strict compliance to the safety protocols.

Ms Tengfah further indicated that the workers who contracted the virus were doing well, adding that the cases were not severe.

During the fumigation exercise, which was undertaken by Zoomlion Ghana Limited, the Northern Regional Vector Control Officer, Mr Abdul-Aziz Yelsuma, said their main aim was to ensure that the facility was reopened.

"The facility was closed down due to the increase in the number of cases. So, this morning we are here to disinfect all their facilities to ensure that the place is safe for them to return to their normal work," he said.

Advice

Mr Yelsuma, however, advised that institutions and individual households should try to disinfect their facilities from time to time to protect themselves from the virus.

"Don't wait until things get out of hand before you call us to disinfect your facilities. Everyone should try as much as possible to disinfect their houses at least once in every month," he added.

The Daily Graphic carried stories in its Monday, February 22 and Wednesday, February 24, editions on the partial closure of the hospital that will last for 14 days (two weeks).

The closure was to make way for a disinfection exercise to break the staff-client COVID-19 transmission at the facility.

The Medical Superintendent in charge of the facility, Dr Sampson Abankwa, in an interview with the Daily Graphic published in last Wednesday’s edition of the paper, gave an assurance that patients who called at the facility for medical attention would not be turned away, in spite of the partial closure of the hospital.