Pregnant women at the Pong Tamale Health Centre
Information gathered by DAILY GUIDE indicates that a midwife at the Pong Tamale Health Centre in the Savelugu District of the Northern Region used a polythene bag as a pair of gloves to perform delivery at the facility.
What necessitated the use of polythene was as a result of lack of gloves at the health facility in the area.
The Pong Tamale Health Centre is the only reliable facility for OPD services, ante-natal, deliveries, family planning, HIV and counselling for residents living in the area.
Residents depend on the facility for their health issues because the only referral facility apart from the Pong Tamale Health Centre is the Savelugu Hospital.
Madam Haruna Ayishatu, a midwife at the centre, told DAILY GUIDE that she used the polythene bag to conduct delivery because a woman came to the facility in a state that she could not refer her to another facility.
According to her, even though she knows it is not good for the health of the woman and herself, she had no choice because there were no gloves available at the moment.
She indicated that transportation for referral cases is a challenge for the facility, adding that they sometimes hire the services of taxi drivers to transport patients to the nearest health facility.
The midwife stated that the facility is trying to form an emergency transport system with the Ghana Private Roads Transport Union (GPRTU) who would station drivers for referral cases.
She appealed to government, institutions and philanthropists to come to the aid of the facility to support them with an ambulance.
FROM Eric Kombat, Pong Tamale