Apart from focusing on its mandate, the initiative would be after 1400hours will also ease pressure on equipment and staff of the facility as it will only concentrate on emergency and referral cases for improved quality health service delivery to the people of the Region and beyond.
 

“From morning till 1400hours, the Regional Hospital will see to all kinds of cases, but after 1400hours, unless it is a referral or an emergency case, we are not going to attend to people walking in and demanding health care,” Mr Elias Mort, a Deputy Administrator of the Hospital said.
 

He explained that it was not a one-off decision, “It is because the Regional Health Directorate is making efforts at empowering the Health Centres and Clinics in the Bolgatanga Municipality and its environs to take care of cases so that the Regional Hospital can concentrate on its mandate as a referral Centre.”
 

Mr Mort said this on behalf of the Management of the Hospital, when he addressed the climax of the Prematurity Month Celebrations by the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of the facility.
 

He said Management was poised to improve health care delivery in the Hospital to reduce the numerous complaints from some members of the public on various media platforms in the Region about health service delivery at the facility.
 

The Deputy Administrator explained that “Most times, we are overwhelmed, and what we are supposed to do, we are not doing that. We are supposed to be a referral facility but currently, we see to all kinds of cases.”
 

Mr Mort said the initiative was for the benefit of the healthcare delivery in the Region, and called on members of the public to bear with Management in its quest to improve quality service delivery.
 

“Some patients at the Regional Hospital, especially at the Maternity and Paediatric wards, the Out-patient Department (OPD) and Emergency are often nursed on the floor with others on chairs and benches during peak seasons”, he added.
 

He explained that even though phase two of the expansion project of the Hospital was started in 2014 and completed in 2016 to create space to accommodate more patients, there is no equipment in the building despite several visits by former and current Regional and Health Ministers to the facility with promises to equip it.
 

The Ghana News Agency gathered that the completed project, which has top and down floors, is designed to house several Units and Departments but has since its completion not been put to use for lack of equipment.
 

The top floor houses six wards with a total bed capacity of about 275 while the ground floor contains the Accident and Emergency Department, X-ray Department, laboratory services, and blood bank.
 

Portions of the ground floor are also designed to house the Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT) Clinic, Ophthalmology, and Pharmacy Departments, the GNA gathered.
 

Other adjourning blocks under construction include the mortuary, kitchen, the Central Sterile Supply Department (CSSD), and staff accommodation.