A MAKESHIFT wooden structure and a fabricated plastic roofing held by metal pillars on the compound of the La Development Centre welcomes residents of La Community seeking healthcare services to the new location of the La General Hospital.
Benches and chairs line-up for patients in the space which serves a dual purpose of an Out Patient Department (OPD), and an Early Childhood Development Centre.
The cashier, registration area and two doctors’ consulting rooms are closely located in the offices of the development centre which also host the community radio station, LATENU.
Nurses call out names as they go back and forth to the small folder room to retrieve patients’ medical records before matching them to the doctors’ consulting rooms.
About 20 people, including mothers who had brought their children for ‘weighing’ and family members and aids of patients who had a doctor’s appointment, waited patiently for their turn.
“This is what has become of the La General Hospital we know,” said Grace Odamptey, a resident of La. “The hospital, we were told we will be getting, is not the same as what we have here…we have moved from top to down.”
Madam Odamptey says healthcare delivery in the La Community has not been the same since the La General Hospital building was demolished and some services moved to its temporary location.
She says the healthcare facility no longer offered certain services like Neonatal Intensive Care (NICU) and they also close by 8pm meaning, emergency cases would have to be taken to neighbouring health facilities.
“See, I injured my ankle at about 9pm, three days ago, and when we got here, the health facility was closed so, we had to take a taxi to 37 Military Hospital, before I could be attended to,” she said.
Like Grace, other residents have had to find alternative means to access healthcare on several occasions.
“When the hospital was here, we used to have easy access. Now, if you want to access healthcare, you have to go to ‘LATENU’ where by 8pm, the health facility is closed so, it means that should anything happen at night, there is no public hospital in La to attend to us,” said Nii Laryea, a resident of La. “Now, when I am unwell, I use the money for transportation to LATENU to go to the pharmacy shop instead and buy medication to treat myself.”
The situation has the potential to derail the country’s effort in achieving the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3 which seeks to ensure health and well-being for all, including a bold commitment to end the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other communicable diseases by 2030.
The SDG 3 also aims to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and provide access to safe and effective medicine and vaccines for all.
According to the World Health Organisation, (WHO), UHC means all people should have access to the health services they need when and where they need them, without financial hardship including the full range of essential health services, from health promotion to prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and palliative care.
Health officers at the hospital say they are putting in their best effort with the situation the find themselves in.
“You can see that this place is not spacious to allow us offer some of the services we use to do at our old place but this is the best we can do with the facility available,” a medical officer who spoke on condition of anonymity noted. “We are hoping that the government would start construction as it has promise so we can have a better working environment.”
The people of La Community were excited at the announcement of the building of a new hospital facility because a report from the Ghana Health Service (GHS) indicated that the 5-storey building of a hospital has developed gapping cracks and that the facility was unsafe for use.
The redevelopment project is financed by a credit facility from the Standard Chartered Bank of the United Kingdom, with an export credit guarantee from Sinosure of the People’s Republic of China, to the tune of sixty-eight million euros (€68 million), with an insurance cover of three million, eight hundred and sixty thousand euros (€3,860,349.18).
The project was to be undertaken by the Chinese company, Poly Changda, which has wide-ranging experience in China and other parts of Africa in the construction of healthcare facilities.
Upon completion, it would be transformed into a one hundred and sixty (160)-bed facility, and it would be fitted with an Outpatients Department; Inpatient Wards; Maternity and Neonatal Services; Surgical Unit with four (4) theatres; Accident and Emergency Department; Public Health Department; Pharmacy Unit; Laboratory; Administration; Imaging Area, with CT Scan, X-ray Room, Ultrasound, Fluoroscopy, Mammography Units; Physiotherapy Unit; and a mortuary.
“This facility, in so many ways, complements the Greater Accra Regional Hospital at Ridge, and its upgrading will serve most people from Osu through La and Teshie, as well as residents living along the coastal corridor of Accra,” President Akufo-Addo said during the sod cutting ceremony.
Member of Parliament (MP) for La Dadekotopon Rita Odoley Sowah, however, believes the promise would not be fulfilled anytime soon as it has been over two years without any construction work taking place.
She recounts the countless attempts to get the project, expected to be completed in 2023 underway, but which had proven futile.
“This is not fair to the people of La, the Ministry of Health (MoH) has said the contractor has come to site but when I went there, they told me that they are putting up a storage facility for the project,” she says.
She said together with the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health they are pushing for the funds needed to start the reconstruction of the La General Hospital to be released.
The Health Minister, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, has said that the rebuilding of the La General Hospital will start soon.
Mr. Agyeman-Manu, during an inspection of the site, stated that even though the sod was cut for the project to commence, the reconstruction came to a halt because the government was confronted with challenges.
He also indicated that the inability to begin the project was partly due to the global pandemic, COVID-19, which has devastated most of the world’s economies.
Mr. Agyeman-Manu also mentioned challenges that could be attributed to the Chinese company, Sinosure.
“This was occasioned by a request from Africa to the Chinese Government to restructure their Africa debt financing policy due to the impact of COVID-19. Sinosure, therefore, put on hold their insurance processes on all Chinese projects in Africa,” he said.
He, however, revealed that Sinosure had given permission for the loan to be insured on October 20, 2021 and as a result, negotiations for value for money were eventually concluded allowing the project to commence.
A visit to the place would reveal only a heap of sand dug onsite and also a store room. This is where the dream to rebuild the La General Hospital has been ever since.
BY Jamila Akweley Okertchiri