Sunyani (B/A) May 19, GNA - Dr. Alexander Kofi Egote, an urologist on Wednesday said the lack of critical facilities and other challenges had made it difficult for the urology department of the regional hospital in Sunyani to cope with the increasing number of patients. He said the department had inadequate human resource, ward rooms, office for specialist consultants and lacked surgical equipment/instrument. In an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Sunyani, he said the department was having a difficult time with the high number of patients seeking treatment of urinary related diseases.

"We are seeing a lot of patients on the average of 50 persons a day and they report from the length and breadth of the country. This has made it difficult for us to cope with the situation", he emphasized. Dr Egote noted there were no separate wards for the department. "We have just a cubicle within the surgical ward so it becomes difficult when you want to add more patients". He stated that lack of surgical instrument/equipment had made it very difficult to perform endoscopic surgery.

The urologist stressed the need for the provision and training of more urologists as the available personnel did not match up with the number of patients. He attributed the problem of shortage of personnel mainly to the unwillingness of medical officers to major in that area of study(urology). Dr. Egote appealed to the government to offer a hand of support to health institutions by providing infrastructure, equipment and human resources, whilst considering improving the conditions of service of health workers to enable them to stay in the country and render services.