Parliamentary select Committee on Health has commended Eastern Regional Hospital for effort in quality healthcare, judicious use of resources, investment, and effective management of equipment at the facility.
The committee made the observation Thursday when they visited the hospital to assesses its performance and ascertain challenges facing the facility.
Management of the hospital presented positive financial outlook , functional equipment, investment in housing for staff, conduct of scientific research into some key healthcare issues in the region , and organization of scientific forum, establishment of dialysis center, clean and seren environment,clean washrooms,community outreaches among others.
The Hospital has also recorded positive health outcome in various indicators including maternal and neonatal mortality.
Members of the committee toured the hospital to inspect facilities and equipment.
Dr.Thomas Winsum Anabah, leader of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health praised management of the Eastern Regional Hospital .
“We were at least comfortable and happy for what they have done so far. We have gone round the facility to inspect certain areas of interest and the look very good I think the hospital management is doing very very well. The hospital is very neat, the arrangement is good the environment is friendly. What we’ve noticed is that they have been able to invest their own monies at least set up a dialysis center and providing free services to the patients which is very good”
He added that “they have been able to establish what we call research in the hospital whereby they have annual scientific forum which is good for a regional Hospital. We hope that all Regional Hospitals will start doing same. They have been able to ensure that their specialists and residents are sent to perifral hospitals to provide services there to reduce the number of referrals to the hospital which is very good of them. I think they have done a lot of good things. Equipment wise they are doing very well”.
Despite this commendation, the Hospital is faced with challenges lack of mammogram, frequent breakdown of equipment, inadequate infrastructure and high staff attrition.
“however they are still requesting for more staffing which we will definitely add to our recommendation. They are only requesting for some type of equipment that are only capital intensive but they have the capacity to use them to minimize Referrals to Accra and Kumasi especially ontological services, cardiac services, MRIs and the rest. We will try to make sure we add them to our recommendations to parliament for onwards submission to the minister to see how they can get this if that is done the hospital will have a serious facelift in terms of services and they can provide complex services to reduce the discomfort they incurr traveling to Accra and Kumasi for those services”.
Some members of the committee were also impressed. Alexander Akwasi Acquah,MP for Oda and a Member of the committee urged other regional Hospitals to emulate the management style of the Eastern Regional Hospital.
The Medical Director of Eastern Regional Hospital,Dr.Arko Akoto Ampaw appealed for completion of the new Eastern Regional Hospital to enable access to cutting -urge medical equipment and access to modern services to improve quality healthcare.
He also suggested to the committee to recommend for provision of dedicated ambulance vehicle for the Regional Hospital to facilitate timely intra-hospital referrals to save more lives.
Source:Mybrytfmonline.com/Obed Ansah
