Director of Pantang Hospital, Dr. Frank Baning, has appealed to the government to allow the facility to employ more professionals since the current number of workers has reduced drastically.
He said the dwindling staff numbers are having a negative impact on the few dedicated staff and have therefore called on the government for support.
Speaking to journalists on the sidelines at a Durbar organised on October 7, 2024, as part of World Mental Health Day, the director stated that several of their staff have travelled abroad to seek better opportunities.
He disclosed that while highlighting some of the challenges confronting the hospital and its negative impact on service delivery.
According to him, when the demand for medical professionals became high for some countries in the peak of the COVID-19 outbreak, several of their workers took the opportunity and left the country.
‘’ The challenges confronting the hospital are several, and we would have to take them one after the other. The first issue we would have to address is the staff strength. When the outbreak of COVID-19 was at its peak and countries were in search of more medical professionals, including doctors and nurses, several of our workers took advantage of that and left. The prevalence of mental health increased due to the COVID-19 outbreak. But the number of workers reduced, and that has affected the hospital so badly. They (Workers) are doing their best, but the workload is higher than expected. That has affected the quality of life of our workers. Some of them are currently unwell.
Due to this, the workers are unable to give out their best, and that has affected the quality of care given at the facility. The work-related hazards have also increased. We are therefore appealing to the to the top government to support and help recruit more workers for the hospital. We need more workers to help reduce the workload on the current number of workers we have. The number of doctors and nurses has reduced. The number of occupational therapists is the worst. We currently have only two clinical psychologists for the facility. The occupational therapists are only two. So we need more workers recruited. That is the first challenge,’’ he lamented.
He also decried the current state of the facility, stating that most of the buildings are in a deplorable state since they have not seen major renovations since they were constructed.
The buildings he said were leaking and pose significant danger to them, while adding that logistics was another major concern.
The facility he disclosed treats several of the patients for free because they don’t have money, and so they struggle a lot with their inability to pay their suppliers.
He appealed to the government to dedicate some resources that will help the facility function effectively.
The internal road network at the hospital was another concern he complained about stressing the need for the government to repair the deplorable road.
He added that all efforts in lobbying for the road to be repaired have not yielded the expected outcomes.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana