Dr. Dzifa Anyah-Nani handing over the drugs to Dr. Djagbletey while the KBTH management staff look on.
Two female medical doctors, Dr. Emefa Anyah-Lartey and Dr. Dzifa Anyah-Nani, have donated boxes of emergency drugs and water pump worth GH¢30,000 to the Department of Anaesthesia of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH).
The doctors, alumni of the teaching hospital and daughters of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of KBTH, Dr. Felix Anyah, made the donation in response to a call by the management to restock the department of its essential drugs.
The presentation of the medical items, including Noradrenaline, Ephedrine, Frusemide, Calcium Gluconate, Sodium Bicarbonate and Amiodarone, was to salvage the dire situation which is gravely affecting the operations of the hospital as the procurement process that the management has to go through is quite laborious.
Presenting the items to Dr. Robert Djagbletey, acting head of the department of anaesthesia, Doctor Emefa Anyah-Lartey said during his inaugural address President Akufo-Addo charged all Ghanaians to be citizens and not spectators by contributing their quota to the development of the country.
She therefore said that upon hearing about the shortage of the emergency drugs at the department, they decided to offer their support so that the health facility would be able to offer services to patients.
“So it is really a great pleasure and honour to donate these medical items to the department of anaesthesia of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital; and we really hope and pray that it will go a long way in providing quality healthcare,” she underscored.
Dr. Djagbletey expressed his profound gratitude to the two doctors for their kind gesture, stating that the drugs had come at a time when the department really needed them.
He said the emergency drugs, especially Ephedrine, which is used to normalize low blood pressure of patients, had currently been in short supply at the hospital as a result of the binding procurement law, which prolongs the purchase of such drugs for emergency cases.
Dr. Djagbletey said the department had had to resort to prescribing the drugs for patients to purchase outside the hospital, which limits the quality of care the hospital hopes to deliver to patients.
He said the situation got very bad last week to the extent that the department was contemplating canceling some scheduled surgeries as well as suspend the admission of patients to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in order to save the few stocks for emergency cases.
“So I cannot but thank you for the timely manner in which these drugs have been presented. It is the most opportune time. With these valves I think we can run fully as we should, both schedule and emergency cases, until our normal supply has been restored,” Dr. Djagbletey maintained.
Mrs. Elizabeth Bruce, Director of Pharmacy, indicated that her department had done its best to procure the emergency drugs but for some reasons, some suppliers failed to honour their obligation to the hospital.
“Now we hope that what you have given us will fill in the gap till our stocks arrive,” Mrs. Brice added.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri