Sunyani (B/A), May 18, GNA - Dr Alexander Kofi Egote, a Urologist, on Wednesday said lack of facilities and other challenges faced by the Urology Department of the Regional Hospital in Sunyani had made it difficult to cope with the increasing number of cases.

He said the department had inadequate human resource, ward rooms, office for specialist consultant and lacked surgical equipment. 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. These have made it difficult for us to cope with the situation," he emphasized. \Dr Egote noted that 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 said. 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 in urology mainly to the unwillingness of medical officers to major in that area of study.

Dr Egote appealed to the government to offer a hand of support to health institutions by providing infrastructure, equipment and human resources. He said government must also consider improving the conditions of service of health workers to enable them to stay and render services to the nation.