WENCHI METHODIST HOSPITAL CRIES FOR HELP (PAGE 51)

The Methodist Hospital at Wenchi in the Brong Ahafo Region was established in 1955 through the joint efforts by the chiefs and people of the town, under the auspices of Reverend John Dixon, who was the then Superintendent Minister of the Wenchi Methodist Church.
The facility started as a dressing station in a small apartment at the current vicinity of the Wenchi Police Station.
The hospital was established due to lack of transport to convey sick people to Sunyani where there was medical facility.
The people’s burning desire for a hospital compelled them to convert a block at the Methodist school into a ward.
The Wenchi Methodist Mission Hospital, which is situated on a total land area of one square mile, is a referral centre serving 18 other health facilities, including clinics, health centres, health posts at Subinso, Nchiraa, Banda, Nsawkaw and Badu, among other communities.
Some health posts in the southern part of the Northern Region also refer cases to the hospital while some traditional birth attendants (TBAs) also do same. The hospital also refers serious cases it cannot handle to the Regional Hospital in Sunyani, which is a distance of about 80 kilometres away.
It is the vision of the authorities at the hospital to make the facility a Christian medical centre of excellence,. The hospital’s avowed mission is to provide holistic and accessible health care services in an efficient, effective and client sensitive manner with qualified and motivated staff within Christian principles and government policies with other stakeholders.
As a 100-bed referral hospital, the facility can pride itself of departments or units such as out-patients and in-patients departments, female, male, children, maternity and isolation wards as well as an emergency room, public health unit and an eye clinic.
The hospital also has a theatre, a laboratory, pharmacy and an X-ray department as well as a magnificent mortuary and refrigeration equipment offering efficient cold storage for the preservation of dead bodies and post-mortem examination.
According to the records at the OPD, last year, attendance at the facility was 47,839 compared with 33,592 in 2007.
The figures have been rising steadily over the years as a result of the successful implementation of the district-wide Mutual Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) introduced by the previous New Patriotic Party (NPP) government.
The hospital has a total staff of 156, 91 of which are mechanised unto the government payroll, 45 non-mechanised, who are paid locally by the institution and 21 seconded from the Ghana Health Service.
At the moment, there are two Ghanaian medical doctors, a medical assistant and two Cuban doctors one of who is a gynaecologist and the other general practitioner. Unfortunately, the hospital has no surgeon, thus depriving the facility of reasonable amount of money.
Despite its modest achievements, the Wenchi Methodist Hospital which is a registered member of the Christian Health Association of Ghana, has major challenges that need to be addressed by the management, the parent church, philanthropists, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), Wenchi citizens of goodwill, both residents and non-residents as well as other stakeholders.
At present, the hospital has an imbalance ratio of 55 trained nurses (professionals) to 54 untrained ones (ward assistants or auxiliary staff). The development does not augur well for the delivery of quality health care that the authorities are desirous to provide for the numerous clients of the facility.
One major area of concern is lack of adequate and decent residential accommodation for staff currently at post as well as those who have expressed their willingness immediately they complete their training programmes.
In an interview with this writer, the Hospital Administrator, Mr B.C.K. Botwe, stressed the urgent need for the construction of 20 new residential houses within the next three years to accommodate the ever increasing staff of the facility. He estimated the cost per one "duplex" house as $28,000.
Mr Botwe stated that the current Dixon Staff Village comprising 16 units, was established with support from expatriate friends of the hospital, namely, Dr Jam Beltman, Miss Elly Mewsbrock and a group of medical students from the University of Cork, Ireland, led by a surgeon by name Noonan.
The hospital administrator led the Daily Graphic to inspect an almost completed beautiful bungalow for doctors, estimated at GH¢200,000.
The project is being financed from the hospital’s internally generated funds. Another ongoing project at the hospital is a six-unit staff quarters and an obstetric theatre for emergency relief, being undertaken by the Wenchi Municipal Assembly with funding from the Social Investment Fund (SIF).
Mr Botwe appealed for more residential accommodation for students on practical attachment from the Techiman, Asante-Mampong, Berekum, Offinso, Sunyani, Tanoso and Kintampo health training institutions as well as individual student nurses who come to the facility for attachment programmes.
The hospital administrator appealed for some equipment to enhance service delivery, particularly an automated haematology analyser, clinical chemistry analyser and a centrifuge to cater for the ever-increasing number of clients currently using the facility.
He stated that those equipment had become imperative because the hospital laboratory had been designated a "sentinel site for the testing of HIV/AIDS".
Mr Botwe added that huge sums of money was also needed to rehabilitate the entire hospital and to expand the maternity ward which is estimated at $37,000 to enable it to provide 24-hour service.
He expressed worry about the delay of work on a new OPD and a casualty block with offices and other facilities being undertaken by Kintampo-based Korigu Construction Company Limited.
When the Daily Graphic contacted the managing director of the construction firm, Alhaji Issifu Fuseini, he gave the assurance that the company would expedite action on the project to ensure its early completion.
Currently, the hospital authorities have raised a canopy as an extension of the OPD to cope with the increasing number of patients who patronise the facility daily.
The hospital administrator called for the upgrading of all the facilities at the hospital in view of the high number of clients as result of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and the free medical care for pregnant women and their deliveries.
He added that the hospital also needed a durable vehicle to facilitate its outreach programmes such as children’s immunisation as well as ante-natal and post-natal services for mothers.
Another critical challenge has been the dust pollution at the hospital premises because of the rough road stretching from a junction at Wenchi, passing in front of the hospital.
It is envisaged that the head of the Methodist Church of Ghana, who is the Presiding Bishop, Most Reverend Robert Kwasi Aboagye-Mensah, and his able lieutenants would marshall essential resources to put the Wenchi Hospital in good shape as a priority before thinking of building an entirely new hospital anywhere in the country.