How A Missing Playground Is Birthing A Faulty Children Hospital At Weija

In a society where adults equate love to care, it isn't easy to understand why children are Ghana's most loved but least cared-for people. With Psalm 127:3 admonishing Christians that children are a blessing and a gift from God, churches in Ghana with beautiful buildings still have children’s services under a tree. In our cities, where we are supposed to know better, we sell children’s playgrounds to build houses. On the contrary, we can find space in the most congested part of the city to build astroturf for adults. Our public policy's disregard for children’s welfare is worse in the health sector. Although children require nearly 40% of play activities to meet their medical, psychological, and daily living needs -along with simply being children-, no public children’s hospital or paediatric department has a playground or school.

Brief History of Children’s Hospitals

Historically, children’s hospitals have been centres of learning, often affiliated with university hospitals, and localised in important urban centres. It is no coincidence, then, that significant medical breakthroughs such as the first kidney transplant, first bone marrow transplant, and first gene therapy were all done in children’s hospitals. Even the stethoscope, medics’ precious jewellery, was first manufactured in children’s hospitals. But with increasing civilisation, children’s hospitals are no longer learning grounds for only medical practitioners; children need to learn and play as well in these hospitals.

Why is Playground/School Important in Children’s Healthcare?

According to UNICEF and WHO, children’s play experiences are essential for their social, cognitive, and physical health, fostering resilience and helping them develop healthy brains. Playgrounds or schools provide a sense of normalcy in the unfamiliar hospital environment, thus protecting children’s innocence and helping them maintain contact hours while sick. For instance, children with chronic illnesses often spend much time undergoing health visits and should not be denied their right to play or learn in the hospital environment as demanded by the United Nations.

It is for this reason that the WHO, in their tool for assessing children’s rights in hospitals, requested that all hospitals plan and deliver play and learning services to children.

Unfortunately, Ghana has not incorporated play opportunities into the designs of the paediatric healthcare environment in any of the public health facilities. It is even more disheartening to hear that the $9 million worth 120-bed children’s hospital facility at Weija lacks a playground or school facility in its design. This is an outright violation of children’s right and an absolute disregard for the WHO standards in designing children’s health facilities.

The Weija Children’s Hospital and the Missing Playgrounds and School

The Weija Children’s Hospital is going to be the second public children’s hospital in Ghana after the Princess Marie Louise Hospital, which was built in 1925 by the British. Although it took the country 67 years to appreciate the need for speciality hospitals, hearing the health minister announce the Weija Children Hospital is 65% complete is welcoming. The health minister stated that the Weija Children’s Hospital will feature “an emergency unit, neonatal and paediatric intensive care unit, recovery wards, three theatres, VIP wards, imaging and biomedical laboratories, outpatient department and mothers’ hostel”. However, there is no playground or school, essential facilities for children’s holistic care.

A children’s speciality hospital is a great project, as children require more time and tailored care, necessitating healthcare professionals who are both patient and compassionate. Such an environment should incorporate children’s development needs into their healthcare ensuring they are treated with the attention they deserve. Certainly, we do not need to dump our children in long hospital queues they do not understand, rush them through medical procedures they cannot appreciate, and force them to be adults they are not ready to become.

But we must ensure these projects are not just brick and mortar alone; they must be able to meet the standards of modern-day paediatric care that support the growth, development and rights of these children.

Fortunately, the Paediatric Society of Ghana understands the importance of playgrounds and schools in children’s hospitals. Just two years ago, Dr Odoma Odame, a paediatrician lamented the absence of these playgrounds in our hospitals and why we need to incorporate them in our future children’s hospitals. The Weija Children’s Hospital is going to be the major model children’s hospital in Ghana, so we cannot afford such glaring defects in the project. The health ministry should immediately incorporate playgrounds and schools into the project.

Though we need a national conversation on the funding for the sustainable operation of this hospital because children’s speciality hospitals usually need more capital to run than general hospitals, we ought to get these playgrounds and schools incorporated in the design immediately. We cannot afford to have this glaring defect in our model children’s hospital in this day and time.

Written by Dr Crispin Wienaa
All correspondence should be sent to cwienaa6@gmail.com

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