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The Catholic University of Ghana (CUG) has presented 60 hospital beds and mattresses to five health facilities in the Bono Region to help address the “no bed syndrome” at the facilities.
The beneficiary facilities include the Sunyani Regional Hospital, which took delivery of 20 beds; Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) Hospital, 20, Sunyani Municipal Hospital, 10, Fiapre Health Centre, five, and five for the CUG Clinic.
The donation, which was supported by Health Information Technology for Africa (HITA), a non-governmental organisation (NGO) based in Germany, sought to reduce bed deficits at the major health facilities and promote quality health delivery.
After the presentation last Thursday, The Dean of School of Nursing and Midwifery of the CUG, Professor Prudence Portia Mwini Nyaledzigbor, who lobbied for the beds, told the Daily Graphic that the 60 beds were part of the 180 beds to be distributed to health facilities in the Bono and Bono East regions.
She said the university was expecting the remaining 120 beds by the end of the month, explaining that "we have put measures in place to distribute them among the municipal and district hospitals, including Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) in the regions".
Prof. Nyaledzigbor said some technical personnel from the beneficiary facilities had been trained in how to operate, assemble and fix the beds when the need arose.
She explained that students from the CUG, who did their practical attachments at the facilities, complained to her that they sometimes attended to patients while they were lying on the bare floor.
Prof. Nyaledzigbor explained that such situation negatively affected both patients and health personnel who had to squat for longer periods to treat patients.
She said having witnessed similar situation in some hospitals, prompted her to write to the NGO to supply the beds to the affected health facilities.
Prof. Nyaledzigbor said she had also planned to seek assistance for some dialysis machines to be donated to the hospitals to support the treatment of patients on dialysis.
For his part, the Vice-Chancellor of the CUG, Prof. Daniels Kwabena Obeng-Ofori, charged the beneficiary facilities to ensure proper maintenance of the beds.
He said the NGO had also responded positively to stock the university’s three laboratories with computers to enhance the department's online examinations and improve teaching and learning of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in the university.
Prof. Obeng-Ofori commended the health facilities for allowing the university’s students to do their attachment at their facilities and appealed to the facilities to give students proper training during their practicals.
The Deputy Administrator of the Sunyani Regional Hospital, Adams Umar Mengu, after receiving the hospital's share of 20 beds, said the donation had come at the right time when the hospital needed them to increase its logistics in order to ensure the smooth transition of the facility to a teaching hospital.
He said medical equipment played a crucial role in the promotion of quality health delivery and the expansion of the hospital to meet a teaching hospital status.
Mr Mengu said the hospital, which was a referral facility, had a 350-bed capacity, explaining that the additional 20 beds would increase the number of beds at the facility.
