No Medical Supplies At Sege

The Sege Health Centre lacks basic medical equipment and supplies for obstetric care.

The health centre is in short of essential fundamental health tools like bag and musk for new-born resuscitation, chlorhexidine for cord care, elbow gloves, vitamin K1 injection and chloramphenicol or tetracycline eye drops to facilitate effective healthcare delivery for the new-born.

Inadequate midwives and community health nurses are also hampering the improvement of care for maternal and neonatal care in the district.

The district, made up of Sege, Anyamam and Bornikope, has had only seven midwives serving the district. Sege which is the largest sub-district has three midwives, with only one babies’ cot serving the facility.

The situation is impeding the smooth implementation of emergency obstetric and neonatal care in the Ada West District of the Greater Accra Region.

This was disclosed during a visit to confirm a rapid assessment needs conducted by the Ghana Health Service to identify gaps in the provision of maternal, new born care and emergency care in some selected deprived health facilities in the country.

Ada West District Director of Health Services, Dr Jacqueline Sfarylani, said the district lacks adequate human resources, especially midwives and community health nurses.

She said the district, with a population of 71,000, recorded low skilled delivery of 20 percent in 2015, adding that most pregnant women in the district patronised the Bartor and Faith Kope hospitals.

“The high presence of traditional birth attendants (TBAs) is also a major challenge for us due to the cultural belief of the people that the old women do have a third eye seeing the future of their pregnancies,” she said.

Dr Sfarylani said the district health directorate was holding meetings with the TBAs to collaborate with them to enable them to refer complicated cases to the health facilities as well as train them to handle deliveries safely.

The health facilities enjoyed electricity from the national grid, but the main source of water to the facilities had not been connected to all the wards.

“Unfortunately, we are not getting frequent power supply and the only generator we have is also faulty. We are forced to use torch lights for deliveries in the nights when the power goes out,” Dr Sfarylani said.

She called on government to assist the district with the necessary infrastructure and resources to enhance healthcare delivery to the people.

Deputy Director in-charge of Family Health of GHS, Gladys Brew, expressed regret that basic medical supplies were lacking in some health facilities.

She urged district assemblies and members of parliament to support maternal and new born care in their respective districts and constituencies to ensure that functional basic emergency obstetric care were made available in at least one health facility in the deprived districts.

Source: Daily Guide