Rotting Nsawam Gov’t Hospital Roofing Leaks

The recent heavy downpours, have exposed the deteriorating state of the Nsawam Government Hospital in the Eastern Region, after sections of the facility’s roofing, was captured on video leaking terribly.

The female ward for instance, which has gaping holes in the rotting roofing and ceiling, saw the rainwater gushing into the room like a burst pipe, leaving patients on admission helpless.

The incident, which occurred during last Sunday’s downpour, captured some staff on duty, particularly the nurses, making frantic efforts to salvage the situation, by pulling patients together with their beds for safety.

The 20-minute videos in circulation, also captured the distressed patients on their sick beds, looking on helplessly, while the staff tried to shield them from the deluge.

They had to employ buckets to continuously collect rainwater from the leaking roof, to prevent other units of the facility from flooding, a situation The Anchor gathered, severely disrupted healthcare services.

Sources told this paper that, in spite of the immense pressure on the facility due to the ever-growing population of the municipality, the hospital, has not received any major renovation in recent past, even though issues regarding the leakages had been brought to the attention of management.

Insiders also disclosed that, apart from the leakages, there are issues of broken louvre blades, faulty doors, broken tiles, exposed electrical cables and visible cracks in portions of the walls all over the facility.

They have hinted that, the wards are not the only sections of the facility affected, as other units also experience the leakage when it rains.

Many, have since expressed distress about the hospital’s deplorable condition after a video about the leakages went gone viral, urging the authorities to address the problem immediately.

Whiles, some have condemned the deteriorating state of the Nsawam Government Hospital, others have questioned what management is spending the Internally Generated Fund (IGF) on, given that such resources are meant for maintenance works and others.

At the time of filing this report, it is unclear, whether management has moved to fix the problem, although some have called for re-roofing of the entire building.

Meanwhile, The Anchor has also picked up report that the Nsawam Government Hospital is not the only health facility facing such challenge, as others like Koforidua Regional Hospital, Akatsi South Municipal Hospital and others also suffer when it rains.

The Koforidua Regional Hospital for example, several units of the facility are said to be experiencing massive leakage for a very long time anytime it rains, but authorities are unable to do something about the situation.

Some staff claimed, even though the issue had been reported to management on several occasions, no action had been taken.

In the case of the Akatsi South facility, management sometime last year had to temporarily closed down one of their units after a massive leaking of the roofing which nearly got the facility flooded.

Many have argued that these incidents cast a harsh light on the deteriorating condition of most government health facilities across the country.

Source: Anchorghana.com