Oxygen shortage leaves 7 dead at Tamale Teaching Hospital

At least seven (7) people have died with the death toll still rising at the Tamale Teaching Hospital following a management decision to abandon a faulty oxygen producing machine.

The machine is said to need close to GH¢30,000 to fix and the hospital management has rather committed to a weekly procurement of “insufficient” oxygen at GH¢15,000.

The rising mortality and increase in life threatening cases at the troubled public hospital according to GHOne News’ broad checks, is due to the persistent skip of oxygen supply to some wards because of its insufficiency.

Many lives have been lost at the Accident and Emergency Ward, the main Theater, Labor Wards and the Neonatal Intensive Care Units which have been severely affected by the administrative miscalculation.

Seven babies reportedly died at the Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU) on Monday when the department run out of supply of oxygen, after its absence killed a male adult at the Theater on the 28^th of last month. Two persons last year clinically died due to the unavailability of the medicinal substance.

The oxygen plant has been producing enough volumes of oxygen since the facility morphed into a Teaching Hospital in 2008. The plant served as a supply point for many other health centers in the three regions of the north, and also for some state agencies including the Fire service.

The machine has broken down multiple times but got fixed and there has never been record of shortage of supply until the new administration practically managed by only three senior officers- Mr. Prosper Akambong, the Chief Executive Officer, Director of Administration Mr. George Atampugre and Director of Medical Affairs Dr. Abass Adam took over.

These three officers have been repeatedly accused of mismanagement including looting and nepotism and this latest incident clearly indicates a raging administrative chaos.

Workers at the facility have blamed the CEO and the two others for supervising an administration characterized by crisis including an unprecedented public health meltdown that begun last two years. They have criticized many decisions of the trio claiming they have destabilizes the public hospital system.

Doctors, Nurses and other health professionals have called for the removal of the three individuals for being insufficiently enthusiastic and irresponsive.

Speaking to GHOne News, Head of the Oxygen Unit Mr. Godwin Nyanyo said the main compressor that produces air to feed the oxygen plant had its bearings worn out since 2015 shattering it to produce for only emergency treatment.

According to him the entire Tamale Teaching Hospital now depends on 100 cylinders of oxygen every week supplied by two companies in the Ashanti Regional Capital following the wear and tear of the machinery making it unable to produce at required volume.

“The pump has the bearings broken in them and we need to replace the bearings on the pump and the seals and the motor is also a challenge; it heats up after some hours of running so ideally we will need to change the electric motor. The dryer also has some leaking problems so we need to reconfigure the pipelines so we can work on the dryer- take the condenser out and repair the leakage.”

 “What we are producing now is no enough because we have challenges with the plant. We are therefore relying on our auxiliary compressor which is not able to generate the capacity. What we produce now serves as back up and only goes directly to wards and theaters”, Godwin explained.

The visibly frustrated Engineer said the only potent panacea to the regular shortage of oxygen supply which has killed scores of patients at the facility is to get the machine repaired but refused to comment whether management were ready to ensure that.

He however appealed to management to provide the department the needed components of the oxygen plant to fix the problem.

“We want the hospital to assist us with the necessary parts that we need to put the whole system back online as it meant to be – restore the main compressor by procuring the motor and the bearings for the pump and work on the dryer and filters.”

The Director of Administration- the spending officer declined comment saying he was ‘unprepared’ and that he needed a permission from the CEO who is currently on leave after an administrative disorder where he was attacked and hounded out from his office by a regional political vigilante group for compelling nurses to administer expired anesthetic drugs on healthcare seekers.

Dr. Abass the Director of Medical Affairs and acting Chief Executive Officer was also not available for comments.

 

By Eliasu Tanko

 

At least seven (7) people have died with the death toll still rising at the Tamale Teaching Hospital following a management decision to abandon a faulty oxygen producing machine. The machine is said to need close to GH¢30,000 to fix and the hospital management has rather committed to a weekly procurement of “insufficient” oxygen at GH¢15,000. The … Read Full Story