Residents of Princess Town, a farming community in the Ahanta West District of the Western Region, have described as unhealthy the fact that both male and female patients who are admitted at the area’s only clinic have to share the same ward.
The people asserted that because of the situation at the clinic, the male and female patients sometimes are forced look at each other’s nakedness unintentionally at the ward.
According to the residents, the same ward at the health facility also serves as the children’s wards when sick children in the farming community have to be admitted.
They alleged that what is so pathetic is the fact that the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ahanta West, George Aboagye, although promised to upgrade the clinic prior to the 2012 general elections, he has refused to honour the promise after being elected.
This came to light when DAILY GUIDE visited the community and interacted with the people.
Confirming the story, Dennis Kwesi Gyabeng, the nurse in-charge of the clinic, revealed that the facility offered general medical care to the people of Princess Town and Aketekyi, all in the district.
He, however, stressed that the current situation was very worrying.
Mr Gyabeng indicated that pregnant women who sometimes visit the clinic to deliver have to do so in the presence of male patients who are already admitted.
“The best we sometimes do is to ask the family members of the expectant mothers to use pieces of cloth to surround the women in labour to prevent the male patients on admission from viewing the nakedness of the women delivering,” the nurse in-charge narrated.
He pointed out that the clinic was confronted with numerous challenges, including the poor road network leading to and from the facility and appealed to the government to expedite the road construction plans.
Mr Gyabeng complained that patients sent to the facility from the various hamlets in the area have to endure the effects of the poor nature of the roads, including exorbitant fares.
He said the dusty nature of the road in the dry season also compounded the health of patients on admission, as the dust envelopes the whole facility.
The nurse in-charge of the clinic pointed out that the few health personnel at the clinic rely on motorbikes for their outreach programmes.
He added that because of the poor road network, by the time the nurses got to the residents for the routine outreach programmes, majority of the people would have gone to their respective farms.
The enrolled nurse in-charge of the clinic also bemoaned that “we used to have a refrigerator but it has spoiled for some time now. We have complained to the authorities concerned but we’ve not received any answer.”
He added, “Another problem is that the clinic is at ‘B1’ level which is very low and because of that we cannot administer certain drugs which some of the patients who come here require, so we are also calling for the clinic’s elevation to even ‘B2’ level.”
From Emmanuel Opoku, Princess Town