Placenta pits are very important for management of pathological waste especially after delivery to mitigate environmental impact.
However, Medical village Health Center , a sub-municipal health facility serving five communities in New Juaben South municipality in Eastern region does not have this engineered facility, therefore, buries pathological waste without following the laid down protocols.
Mary Oforiwaa Atua, Sub-municipal head , Medical Village Health Center told Starr News “If we get the placenta pit it will serve a whole lot. Because we don’t know which placenta is diseased when we have the pit we drop it and it is treated. But when you just bury it, the after effect will not be positive”.
The absence of placenta pit is not the only challenge at the Medical village health center.
There is also lack of medical laboratory at the facility for medical examination of condition.Patients are refered to the Eastern regional hospital for lab services but never return to the facility.
“We do not have a laboratory so we only do rapid diagnostic test for malaria and sometimes we do the full blood count if we get lab it will really help because we are serving like five communities which includes medical village, Abogri, mile 50 and Kwakyea so we need laboratory for investigations. The clients goes to the regional hospital and come back with the results which is not convenient. One other issue is our placenta pit. We do not have a placenta pit but we do deliveries and we dig and bury which it is not appropriate it is not the best” Mary Oforiwaa Atua said.
She revealed that the Medical village Health Center has only one ward serving adult males, females, children as well as new mothers.
“we have just a ward that serves females and makes ,kids and even our mothers when they deliver that is where we have to keep them which is not the best so we need additional wards so that we attend to them separately to provide privacy and even go that unit when it rains we need to adjust so it needs renovation as well”.
Meanwhile, an NGO Cartel Foundation has donated
Screen, weighing scale, finger tip pulse oximeter, couch, BP apparatus, stethoscope, nebulizer, trolley, glacometer, glacometer strips, digital thermometer, dressing instruments, Plaster, face mask, among others to Medical Village Health Center in Koforidua -Two Streams Electoral Area in Eastern region to ameliorate the plight of the facility and improve quality.
Henry Harry Owoo, CEO of Cartel Foundation said the donation was in response to request made by Assembly member for Two Streams and management of the Health center urgent intervention.
Assembly member for Two Streams Electoral Area Citizen Tetteh said apart from infrastructural challenges, the medical Village health center also faced inadequate logistics including BP apparatus, gloves, beds therefore commended Cartel foundation for responding swiftly to their calls to help the facility.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM/Kojo Ansah