Medical Director of the Pantang Psychiatric Hospital Dr. Frank Baning is calling on government to as matter of urgency help deal with infrastructure challenges at the hospital.
According to him, the situation is crucial, affecting quality healthcare delivery.
“There is a looming danger that nobody is talking about,” he said. “The hospital has old buildings, concrete roofings, cracked and leaking.”
He added: “Some of these buildings are so weak and as far as I’m concerned an assessment has to be done and those that are very weak must be brought down and those that they think they can salvage something should be done about it for us to have accommodation for the people.”
Dr Baning shared these sentiments in an interview with 3news.com.
He noted there is the need to fix the cracks and then do some painting on it.
He said two years ago, UK AID and Ghana International School managed to renovate some of the wards, yet there has to be renovations.
“The ward needs help and the administration block also needs help but then staff accommodation also needs a lot of help,” Dr Baning observed.
He said they have written to the Ministry of Health to do a structural assessment of their buildings.
The Pantang Hospital chief indicated that he recently wrote twice to the Ministry, but he was surprised the team expected the hospital to fund the assessment.
“They are expecting us to come up with money for a consultant to do it, and we don’t have the money.”
Dr. Baning said of the many deteriorating buildings, the team from the Ministry of Health only assessed one building.
“They came in here and assessed one building, but when you move around you can see the deterioration of the building because these are building that were built in the 60’s.”
He indicated that because of lack of funding for the hospital, they are unable to undertake maintenance as they should.
One of his major concerns was the number of uncompleted buildings on the compound, saying some of the hospital staff have occupied them and they cannot be driven out.
“When we drive staff away, squatters would occupy them and we don’t know them.”
He also expressed worry over the criminal activities the hospital has to deal with.
By Esi Benewaa Otoo|3news.com|Ghana