ABOUT five
years ago, the Northern Regional Hospital, now Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH),
was plunged into a crisis as several years of neglect left the hospital in a
precarious state requiring ‘intensive care’.
With some of the wards being reduced to
death traps coupled with the lack of staff and equipment, the centre could
simply not hold.
From then till now, however, a lot of
things have changed at the hospital and one would be rightly placed to conclude
that the hospital is on the path of a major revival.
This renewed hope is driven by notable
improvements in various sectors of the hospital’s operations, ranging from infrastructure
to service delivery.
Expansion
and rehabilitation project
When the hospital was commissioned in
1974, it was meant to function as a regional hospital for the Northern Region
and also as a referral point for the Upper East and West regions.
It served as such for several years
until 2007 when it became necessary to convert it into a tertiary facility to
support the training of medical students of the School of Medicine and Health
Sciences of the University for Development Studies (UDS).
However, the change in status posed serious
difficulties to the hospital as it had overnight taken on a status that,
realistically, was then beyond its capabilities.
Many of the existing structures at the hospital were
in a very deplorable state, especially the tower block. This compelled the
workers to abandon some of the floors.
It became pretty obvious that the hospital became
overwhelmed by the rise in patient numbers as a result of population growth
over the years.
As a result, the consulting rooms became
inadequate and there were not enough rooms to provide offices for many doctors
and administrative staff.
Many wards, such as the maternity and
casualty wards, became crowded and patients were compelled to use the floor as
there was not enough space for more beds.
In the past, various political
administrations had made pledges to rehabilitate the TTH, but these pledges
never materialised, until May 2010, when the long-awaited rehabilitation and expansion of the TTH finally
took off.
The
President, Prof John Evans Atta Mills, cut the sod for the project, following a
financing arrangement the government had entered into with the government of
the Netherlands.
The first phase of the project, which is
in progress, involves the construction of a new
four-storey block at the eastern side of the hospital and an innovative link
building, which would link the new block to the existing blocks.
The
new block is expected to house critical areas such as an Accident and Emergency
Centre, Diagnostic Imaging Unit, Labour and Delivery Suite, Operating Theatres
and Intensive and Coronary Care units.
The
innovative link building provides easy access to all levels of the new and
existing buildings for ambulant, wheelchair or stretchered patients and
visitors alike, whiles internal lifts in the new building are reserved for
medical use.
According to the Chief Executive Officer
(CEO) of the TTH, Dr Ken Sagoe, as at August, this year, the contractor for the
project – Simed International – indicated that the construction of this block
was 90 per cent complete.
“We are expecting that by October, this
year, they would have finished with the rehabilitation of the old children’s
ward and old medical ward. They would then proceed to tackle the tower block,”
he mentioned during an interaction with the press.
Dr
Sagoe noted that when the construction of the four-storey was completed, the
hospital would have over 600 beds, adding that this would be a significant
development.
Although
many changes have gone on in the TTH over the past three years, this project
appears to be the most glaring and gratifying to the people of the north.
Boosting
staff strength
One of the key challenges that faced the
TTH during its transition period was the shortage of critical staffs.
It required a number of professionals, including medical
officers, specialists, consultants, general and specialised nurses and
laboratory technicians.
As at the end of December 2007, the TTH could only boast of
21 doctors and a handful of pharmacists, laboratory technicians and other
staffs. However,
having followed progress at the hospital since that period, it is pretty
obvious that the hospital has made consistent progress in increasing both the
quality and quantity of its workforce.
In 2008, the number of doctors increased
to 36 and further increased to 58 and 102 in 2009 and 2010, respectively. As at
the middle of this year, the hospital now had 112 doctors and there are
indications that the number would increase further by the end of the year.
Checks also revealed that nursing levels
have seen a sustained increase from 309 in December 2009 to 450 in 2010 and 706
in mid-2011, with 70 of them being midwives.
In the laboratory section, the number of
technicians has increased from a figure of nine in 2008 to 59 in 2011. There
are now 25 pharmacy staffs as against six in 2008.
The creation of new sections such as
audit, public relations and human resource, has equally led to the employment
of more professionals for these areas.
Availability
of specialist care
One significant development closely linked to the increase
in staff numbers is the availability of specialists.
Some few years back, all manner of
cases, ranging from complex to less complicated, were being referred to other
tertiary facilities in the south. This is no more the case, since the TTH now
has a number of specialists, including an ophthalmologist, neurosurgeon,
obstetric gynaecologists, radiologists, psychiatrists, orthopaedic surgeons,
paediatricians and urologists, who offer services not only to people in the
Northern Region, but those in the Upper East and Upper West regions and beyond.
The pile of work that greets these
specialists each day is overwhelming and they deserve commendation for
remaining committed to the north.
These specialists have helped the
hospital to improve and expand its clinical services and have performed
lifesaving surgeries.
In November, 2009, the hospital saved
the life of a teenager, Iddrisu Rukaya, who was at the point of death when she was
found lying in a pool of blood in a gutter at Kakpayili, a suburb of Tamale,
“When
they brought her, the skull had crushed open and a significant chunk of her
brain matter had protruded and stuck to the skin. In fact, she was between life
and death,” the Head of the Neurosurgical Unit of the TTH, Dr Adam Abass told
the Daily Graphic when he was
interviewed.
“The
whole bone fragment on that segment was off and sinking into the brain and
there was also some debris in the brain,” he further mentioned.
Rukaya underwent surgery, successfully,
and recovered subsequently through a combination of intensive care and
physiotherapy.
In that same year, the TTH performed, successfully, its first
renal dialysis, a procedure that is performed for people whose kidneys are not
functioning well or are damaged either permanently or temporarily.
Similar operations have been performed at the eye,
gynaecology, urology and other sections.
According to the Public Relations
Officer of the TTH, Nii-Otu Ankrah, the setting up of an endoscopic surgical
unit has enabled the hospital to do endoscopic surgeries and interventional
endoscopy.
He also mentioned the Intensive Care
Unit (ICU) and the neonatal ICU as two other critical units that were set up
and “they have played critical roles in helping save the lives of patients.”
Replacing
obsolete equipment
In the absence of modern equipment,
however, the work of these specialists is limited.
For instance, the consultant urologists,
Dr Akis Afoko is left with no option than to use out-dated methods to repair
urological conditions, such as open surgeries.
He told the Daily Graphic that he could perform more surgeries in shorter
periods with an endoscopic machine, as well as other equipment.
At the eye unit, the ophthalmologist, Dr
Seth Wanye has been compelled to use outmoded slit lamps, tonometers,
microscopes and surgical instruments.
Dr Wanye said the eye clinic would not
have to refer patients with conditions that require laser treatment or cornea
transplant to other hospitals if the TTH had a modern laser machine and other
equipment.
However, in the estimation of Dr Sagoe,
these challenges could soon become a thing of the past because the hospital was
expecting over 80 containers full of medical equipment which would be used to
furnish the various sections of the new block when construction is completed.
He also mentioned that the government
had awarded on contract the establishment of an MRI facility, which is expected
to enhance medical imaging at the hospital.
Already, the hospital has been a
beneficiary of large quantities of donations of medical equipment from various
philanthropic institutions and partners.
In fact, the hospital management is
hopeful it would soon have a modern eye care centre with the support of the Lions
Eye Centre and the University of Louisville, both in Louisville, Kentucky, in
the United States.
The head of the eye clinic, Dr Seth
Wanye mentioned that these partners have pledged to donate state of the art
equipment to the eye clinic, which would enable the hospital to perform major
eye surgical operations that include cornea transplant and laser treatment for
diabetic patients with severe retinal diseases.
He said in addition, a tissue bank and
an optical laboratory would also be established at the eye unit to enable the
unit produce eye glasses and make them available to patients at affordable
prices.
Way
forward
One thing remains clear, with consistent
effective leadership, government support and partnership, the TTH is on the
path to realising its vision of becoming a “centre of excellence for quality
tertiary healthcare and medical education and research.”
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