Uncompleted Theatre Project Putting Pressure On Tema Hospital

The Medical Director of Tema General Hospital says a theatre facility project which has been abandoned since 2008, is taking a toll on the hospital.

Dr Kwabena Opoku Adusei said they are constrained as they sometimes have to put together two theatre tables which are not right but they have no option as they want to save lives.

The project was started by government as part of hosting the CAN 2008 tournament to improve healthcare delivery in Tema and beyond.

However, the project stalled along the line and has been at the vagaries of the weather in the last nine years forcing the hospital to depend on limited space and equipment for surgery.

According to Dr Opoku Adusei, the lack of a general theatre in the facility comes with other challenges including sterilisation of the equipment and the staff are also overworked.

“Elsewhere all the units have one set of theatre under one governance which makes life easy because it has the same set of nurses. You don’t have theatre rooms assigned to units as it is managed by the theatre manager and that makes the theatres more efficient.”

Dr. Adusei Opoku was grateful to Ghana Cement after the company donated 1000 bags of cement towards the completion of the hospital's uncompleted theatre.

The Commercial Director for Ghacem, Nana Philip Archer, told Joy News' Kwame Yankah that their donation to the facility is part of their corporate social responsibility as they celebrate their 50^th anniversary.

He said Ghacem believes in the role of corporate bodies improving access to better healthcare delivery.

Mr Archer said they did a needs-based assessment and the hospital's administration told them that they needed help to complete a surgical ward.

“We decided to select one key health facility to support this year and the company’s select committee picked the Tema General Hospital to extend a helping hand to them.

“This is not the first donation we have done to the facility. Three years ago, we also helped the facility with 500 bags of cement,” he said.

Commercial Director said Ghacem is hopeful the donation will go a long way to help the hospital put up its theatre and make life easy for the doctors and nurses as well as save lives.