Wenchi Methodist Hospital builds obstetric theatre
The untimely death of an expectant mother in labour at the Methodist Hospital at Wenchi in the Brong Ahafo Region in July 2012, after a protracted delivery process, has led to the construction of a new obstetric theatre with modern equipment for the hospital.
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The construction of the facility became necessary following the death of a pregnant woman who had been rushed to the hospital with a protracted delivery and needed a surgical intervention immediately.
Because the hospital had only one surgical operating theatre and it was busy at that time, the pregnant woman had to wait for five minutes. When the theatre was eventually cleared, the woman had passed on.
That aroused the attention of everybody, and the hospital authorities made an appeal to the Wenchi Municipal Assembly, and through the Social Investment Fund (SIF), the obstetric theatre was constructed.
Intervention
The Administrator of the Methodist Hospital at Wenchi, Mr Bernard Clement Kwasi Botwe, who took this reporter round the facility, later in an interview, said the hospital, from January to date, had not recorded any maternal death and they were determined to sustain that.
In addition to those efforts to prevent maternal deaths, Mr Botwe said the hospital had intensified its education among women in its catchment areas to come for supervised deliveries. This has shot up the number of women who deliver at the hospital.
To contain the number and also provide more space in the lay-in labour ward, Mr Botwe said the hospital had secured funding from the administrator of the common fund to expand its 25-bed capacity maternity ward to 50 and construction of an additional 25-bed maternity ward which would be ready by the first quarter of next year.
The administrator of the Wenchi Methodist Hospital said as part of efforts to prevent maternal deaths in the catchment areas of the hospital, the hospital recently organised series of workshops for traditional birth attendants (TBAs) in the area, and after the workshop, the hospital entered into an agreement with the TBAs that for any pregnant woman they directed to the hospital to deliver, they would be compensated with Gh¢10.
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Other services
Mr Botwe disclosed further that the hospital was also constructing a client relations hostel facility which would be ready by the close of the first quarter of next year to provide accommodation for vesicle vaginal fistula (VVF) patients who came for free VVF repair services between March and April each year at the hospital.
He said the hospital, in partnership with a specialist from Northern Ireland, Dr Allan Miller, yearly performed free VVF repair for women; it started in 2006.
Mr Botwe said Dr Miller, who was being sponsored by the Northern Ireland Methodist Women's Fellowship, apart from the free services, also fed the VVF patients thrice a day till they recovered and also provided them with transport fares back home.
He said Dr Miller had been treating prostate cases since 1991, until 2006 when he added the VVF, and had so far operated on about 2,000 patients, including prostate and VVF patients.
Mr Botwe said as part of a succession plan of the hospital and to sustain the programme, the hospital had sponsored a young Ghanaian doctor to train as a permanent resident urologist; that person would start work at the hospital from the first quarter of next year.
He said the hospital had also set up an orthopaedic unit to provide specialist care for accident victims, adding that the hospital has sponsored another doctor to train as an orthopaedic surgeon, and also put some nurses in emergency care to run the unit due to the high accident cases reported at the hospital, especially the Wenchi to Wa road accident.
Appeal for ambulance
The hospital administrator said the Wenchi municipality had no ambulance service and the hospital currently relied on an old ambulance which was donated to them by the defunct Valco Trust Fund.
He, therefore, appealed to philanthropists and corporate bodies to provide the hospital with a modern ambulance to enhance its emergency services.