The Yendi Municipal Hospital in the Northern Region has held its maiden open day to engage its clients on their concerns to ensure quality health delivery.

Some clients of the Hospital have over the years had cause to complain about service delivery.

They raised concern about maternal and infant morbidity as well as lack of empathy by nurses and non-availability of essential medicines and reagents for laboratory services. Others were not happy about delays in locating folders of clients, blunt refusal by night nurses to attend to diabetic patients early in the morning, and extortion by some nurses.

Some of these challenges have resulted in direct attacks on nurses and calls for the dismissal of some senior staff of the Hospital. It was against this background that authorities of the facility held the open day to offer the clients the opportunity to voice their grievances for possible redress.

It was themed “Improving Productivity Through Quality Health Delivery; The Role of the Yendi Municipal Hospital” and attended by the Northern Regional Health Director, Dr Jacob Mahama, representatives from the overlord of Dagbon, hospital staff and residents.

“We have realized there some medicines that can’t be found in the open market unless from nurses and that is our worry,” one of the residents, Adam Mohammed said.

He added: “Nurses now indulge in businesses right in the wards and sometimes you’re even told the type of medicine administered at the hospital aren’t effective like the ones the nurses sell” Mr Ibrahim Sulemana who spoke on behalf of diabetic patients said: “night [duty] nurses bluntly refuse to attend to us knowing very well our cases demand we arrive very early at the hospital for checks before breakfast.

“They tell you they have closed thus patients have to wait for the arrival of morning [shift] nurses before we’re attened to without considering our situations” he added..

Head of the hospital, Dr Seidu Ayuba, sympathized with the clients but urged them to desist from direct attacks on staff when aggrieved, and asked them to channel their grievances through the appropriate quarters for redress.

“Management apologizes for any anomalies caused by staff during this period. However, we will urge you not to attack our staff when these issues come up but to report to us and we promise to deal with any nurse when found guilty “.

He also cautioned opinion leaders and some influential individuals not to intervene on behalf of staff who are punished for misconduct.

“We achieved our aim because this opened day wasn’t just for us the management to tell clients our services and challenges, it was an interactive programme which has exposed certain during issues that ideally we at the offices are not cognizance of and I believe that was the main aim, to listen to clients, appreciate their grievances and explain to them certain issues” Dr Ayuba said.