Patients sharing beds at the Tatale District hospital

Patients in the Tatale District Hospital have been compelled to share beds in the wards as the facility has run out of beds due to increasing number of admitted patients within four days.

Apart from the increasing number of patients, the beds in the hospital are also too small considering the status of the facility.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency on the situation at the facility, Dr Paul Ayebilla, Medical Superintendent of the hospital said the facility had only 31 beds, but the increasing numbers had compelled them to pair the patients.

While some were two, others were found three on their beds, with others who could not be allocated beds, spreading some mats on the floor to be administered on.

Dr Ayebilla told the GNA that although there was no outbreak, patient figures from the beginning of the month were alarming.

He said on November 1, 71 patients were admitted at the facility and the figure increased to 90 cases on November 2, 49 new cases on November 3 and as at Monday, November 4, the admitted figure rose to 110.

“My brother, this is the situation we find ourselves and in order to ensure that everybody was catered for, we had to adopt the current measures as adhoc measures to enhance health delivery to the patients.”

He named the various diseases that caused their admission as Malaria, Pneumonia, Anaemia, Gastroententis, urinary tract infections, peptic ulcer disease, typhoid fever, Arthriitis, skin infections among other diseases.

He said women and children were in the majority, while children below five years were more among the admitted.

Dr Ayebilla said they had to admit more patients, notwithstanding the shortage of beds because of the complications in their ailments and called for immediate support to overcome their challenges.

He said apart from patients within the district, some of them also came from neighbouring Togo for medical attention and ‘by our protocols we cannot deny them medical attention, and we can only pray for the situation to change from today.”

Mr Samson Tayare Adjei, Senior Accountant at the hospital said another challenge the hospital faced was lack of residential accommodation for staff at the premises, a situation that was affecting their emergency cases.

He said although two of their quarters got burnt about two years ago, no conscious efforts were made to renovate and even add new structures for the facility and appealed the District Assembly and other Philanthropists to support them to address the issue.