Volta Regional Hospital faces severe challenges: Lack of modern equipment and specialist doctors hamper operations

Apart from lack of modern equipment, the Volta Regional Hospital also lacks an ICU and has inadequate specialist doctors.

Formerly known as Hohoe Municipal Hospital, it was established in 1935. The facility was upgraded to a regional hospital in 2022, but has not seen any development since then to meet the standards of a regional hospital.

The hospital has a bed capacity of 178 and a staff strength of about 467. It also serves as a referral hospital with a catchment population of about 500,000, including patients from the neighboring Oti region.

A visit to the hospital on Friday, May 31, 2024, revealed the deplorable state of the nurses’ hostel. Not far from the nurses’ hostel is a building meant to serve as the hospital’s ICU.

However, work on it has stalled for more than two years, leaving the hospital without an ICU. Next to it is the accident center, which was built recently. However, the equipment in the center frequently breaks down due to heat.

Relatives who bring their family members to the hospital have no lodge-ins, leaving them with no choice but to sit in the open. At the theater ward, every piece of equipment in use is manually operated.

There are only two anesthesia machines, with only one functioning. The theater has no X-ray viewer, no diathermy machine, insufficient surgical instruments, and lacks central air-conditioning.

Water shortage at the hospital is another major challenge. The nurses have to fill gallons manually as water flows to the facility only on Mondays and Fridays. More worrying is the state of the OPD. Some patients and residents told the news team that when it rains, the roof leaks badly, driving away all clients.

The Neonatal Care Unit was built to accommodate 15 babies but now admits over 25 due to high demand on the facility. The Volta Regional Hospital still uses very old beds in both the male and female wards, a situation that patients and clients say makes visiting the hospital difficult.

The dire situation at the Volta Regional Hospital underscores the urgent need for government intervention and investment to upgrade the facility to meet the needs of the population it serves.

By Joseph Armstrong Gold-Alorgbey

The post Volta Regional Hospital faces severe challenges: Lack of modern equipment and specialist doctors hamper operations first appeared on 3News.

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