Dr Kwabena Opoku Adusei
Residents of Tema and its environs who access health delivery at the Tema General Hospital have resorted to the use of digital x-ray films after revelations of the shortage of analogue films at the facility, DAILY GUIDE has gathered.
The premier public health facility in Tema was hit with the shortage of the material for conducting radiography, thereby, compounding the problems of poor patients who have to travel outside the health facility to get x-ray done.
Hitherto, patients with fractures were forced to shell out expensive amount for a single exposure of the ordinary x-ray, leaving many patients stranded as they resort to expensive services offered by private medical institutions.
This time, the hospital has acquired digital x-ray films where image acquisition is much faster in comparison to the conventional ones. Furthermore, image previews are available within some few minutes, making treatments faster and cheaper.
The current progress in technology is believed to reduce film storage costs and enable digital storage of images at the hospital which attends to patients from Tema, Ashaiman, Dawhenya, Zenu, Sege, Tsopoli and its surrounding communities.
Dr Kwabena Opoku-Adusei, Director of Tema General Hospital, confirmed that with the acquisition of digital x-ray, the hospital would no longer refer patients to private other facilities.
According to him, the digital x-ray is clearer and faster than the conventional ones, and it would reduce queues at the department drastically.
“Computed radiography also often requires fewer retakes due to under or over exposures which can result in lower overall dose to the patient,” he stated.
Patients who spoke to the DAILY GUDIE expressed excitement over the progress made by hospital, saying that this would help reduce the burden of paying more at private hospitals.
From Vincent Kubi, Tema