The Upper East Regional Hospital, in Bolgatanga; the regional capital is operating under capacity. This is because the critical specialized health staff needed to full operationalise the facility are unavailable.
The facility needs a minimum of 28 specialists, 8 consultants, and 16 dentists among other health staff to be fully operational. The hospital currently has only 4 out of the optimum number of 28. This means that many residents who need specialist care would have to be transferred out of the region to seek healthcare.
The Upper East Regional Director of Health Services, Dr. Emmanuel Kofi Dzotsi brought this to the fore when he spoke at a health forum organised by A1 Radio on the Day Break Upper East Show.
“Per the data I have, we are supposed to have 8 consultants, but currently, we do not have any. If you look at the dentists, we are supposed to have 16, but currently, we have only two. The only eye specialist left. For the specialists in general, we should have 28, but currently, we have 4.”
“We have 2 specialists for obs/gyn. We have 1 specialist for general medicine and 1 physician specialist,” he added.
This, Dr Dztosi said means that, the current specialists who have taken up the challenge and are working at the facility are breaking their backs, to ensure that people have access to proper healthcare.
“I commend the staff that are working in the region. They are really doubling up. I always commend them for the good work that they are doing,” he said.
Meanwhile, Dr. Dzotsi, has also expressed concern about the number of healthcare workers who are requesting to leave the region despite the shortage of health professionals.
“I must say that for every human resource issue that we are talking about, at least 90 percent of them are requesting to leave the region.”
Mr. Dzotsi said this on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East Show on May 23, 2022.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
