Correnspondence from Volta Region

Member of Parliament (MP) for South Tongu in the Volta Region, Hon. Korbla Mensah Woyome has commended doctors and nurses as well as all health staff in his constituency including the Management of the Richard Novati (Comboni) Catholic and the District Hospitals at Sogakope for their innovative efforts and measures at preventing the spread of the coronavirus pandemic that has hit the shores of the country.

According to the MP, such measures are not only adding to the awareness creation efforts but also putting everybody on alert.

Hon. Woyome made the commendation after a one-day fact-finding tour of some major health facilities in the South Tongu constituency. The tour also saw the donation of some medical kits including nose masks and veronica buckets by the MP to the District Directorate of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) for distribution to all health facilities in the area.

The District Director of Health Services (DDHS) for the area, Ms. Mavis Agumeh accompanied the MP to visit the Richard Novati and the District Hospitals all at Sogakope, the Dabala Health Centre as well as the Customs Checkpoint at Dabala Junction.

Mr. Woyome held brief meetings with the key management members of all the facilities he visited to acquaint himself with the situation on the ground as well as their challenges and level of preparedness put in place to combat the Covid-19 pandemic if any case is detected in the constituency.

At the Richard Novati Hospital for instance, every visitor or client entering the facility is subjected to a compulsory temperature taking process and a hand washing with soap under running water at entrances of the health facility. A single room with a toilet and bath facility has also been designated at the security area of the hospital to isolate any suspected case of the coronavirus that may come up.

Even though the hand-washing and temperature taking procedures have also been instituted at the District Hospital in Sogakope, those protocols were not being enforced due to logistical challenges. At the time of the visit

on Monday, the facility was awaiting the delivery of a tent it had ordered for use as an isolation room. It would be sited at a designated area within the facility to take care of any suspected case that might surface.

The situation was not different at the Dabala Health Centre which has a history of high attendance in Out Patients’ Department (OPD) cases partly due to the Dabala market which serves thousands of people within and outside the district.

The visit exposed the huge absence of basic logistics and kits such as hand sanitizers, nose masks and the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) at the health facilities for use by doctors, nurses and the other staff.

The MP however urged the Ministry of Health to demonstrate enough and more commitment towards fighting the pandemic through the provision of the needed basic kits and tools to the hospitals and health facilities.

Mr. Woyome further added his voice to the numerous calls on government to urgently decentralize the Covid-19 testing centers to all the regional hospitals or capitals to ensure effective management of the whole pandemic. In his view, the current two sites for testing the virus across the country which are the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research in Accra and the Centre for Collaborative Research in Kumasi are woefully inadequate. According to Hon. Woyome, the regions already have the personnel.

The district director of health service, Ms. Mavis Agumeh also revealed at the end of the tour her outfit has been conducting a series of educational programes across the district on the virus, using local radio stations as a medium to reach out to the people. She however called for proper hygienic practices among the people and also advised them to strictly adhere to protocol rules laid down by the Ghana Health Service and the World Health Organization.