Ejisu (Ash), Feb. 5, GNA - An urgent appeal has been made to the Government to consider upgrading the Ejisu hospital into a District facility so as to enable it effectively cope with the many emergency cases in the area.

Dr Badu Sarkodie, Ejisu/Juabeng District Director of Health Services (DDHS), said, such an initiative by the Government was crucial and long overdue because of the strategic and central location of Ejisu. Dr. Sarkodie made the appeal when he presented a report on the health situation in the district at the annual performance review meeting at Ejisu.

He said with the rehabilitation of the Accra-Kumasi highway and establishment of an inland port at Boankra, the need to upgrade the Ejisu hospital had become crucial more than ever.

Dr. Sarkodie explained that good roads and industrial developments go along with increased injuries and ailments, which need to be matched with well-equipped hospitals and "not any ill-equipped hospital". The DDHS also called for the expansion of facilities at the Juabeng District hospital.

"Even though the Juabeng hospital has been tagged a District hospital, most of the facilities and infrastructure have deteriorated to the extent that it is fast losing patients to other hospitals," he said, citing leakages of some of the wards and the theatre, as well as accommodation as basic problems facing the hospital.