Pediatricians at Tetteh Quarshie Memorial Hospital in Akuapem Mampong in Eastern region are making great strides in increasing awareness about neonatal jaundice among mothers and caregivers for early detection and treatment as part of Neonatal Jaundice awareness month observed every year in the month of May.
Due to intensive awareness creation many mothers are bringing their babies with suspected cases to the Tetteh Quarshie Hospital.
Neonatal jaundice is a major reason babies are frequently re-admitted after hospital discharge following delivery.
Evidence from the Ghana Health Service (GHS) shows that the incidence of neonatal jaundice among newborns has been on the rise in recent years.
For instance, from 2015 to 2019, Ghana recorded 3,031, 4,251, 5,338, 7,175 and 9,273 cases of neonatal jaundice respectively.
It however increased to 10,684 in 2020.
When severe jaundice in babies goes untreated for too long, it can cause a condition known as kernicterus which is a type of brain damage that can result in athetoid cerebral palsy and hearing loss.
Dr.Diane Kyei, Pediatrician at Tetteh Quarshie Memorial Hospital said, 7 out of every 10 babies get jaundice stating that babies born through caesarean section are at higher risk.
“Babies born and not breastfed early enough especially those who have done the caesarian section usually by the third day after birth that is when they start producing breast milk and by then you would have noticed that the baby’s eyes would have been jaundice”.
Dr. Diane added “So how we manage it is that we expect that any baby with the yellowing of the eyes is brought to us for investigations and then per the level of bilirubin that we see we know that we admit or we let you go home and just continue breastfeeding. So if it is that high that we have to admit you we admit you to our neonatal intensive care unit and then you are put under the phototherapy machine for a number of days this will help to break down the bilirubin so it can be excreted through the urine.”
She stated that in case of high level of jaundice “exchange transfusion is done to replace blood that is in the baby’s system with something new.”
Sheila Larbi, Nursing Officer In -charge of the Pediatric and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of Tetteh Quarshie Memorial Hospital stated that the Unit needs more equipment to help provide holistic healthcare for children admitted at the facility.
She stressed that the unit urgently needs equipment such as Perfuser
CPAP, monitors, Firefly (phototherapy machine), billigun and basinet.
Meanwhile, a non for profit organization, “As I Grow (AIG) Foundation has donated times such as Pulse oximeter ,gloves, Flow meter, Savalon, Nasal prongs and other baby essentials to the unit to support delivery of healthcare to the children admitted at the pediatric unit.
“the attention of the NGO was drawn to the logistical challenges at the Pediatric and the NICU unit when the organization paid medical bills of some children struggling to pay their bill in February this year. The situation was very disheartening as the units were not having some simple equipment and items to aid the nurses in the execution of their duty reason we decided to get all these items to donate .We thank Ms. Leonora Adoyobo for supporting us do this donation”.
Administrator of Tetteh Quarshie Memorial Hospital, Maxwell Larbi said the financial standing of the hospital not encouraging due to low reimbursement by National Health Insurance scheme and inability of patients to pay medical bills therefore called for more support from corporate bodies and individuals.
“The donation is going to go a long way to improve health care in the facility especially at the children’s ward recently cost of medical consumables are very expensive so when we receive such items we cherish it most and we always expect that other NGOs will continue to donate such things to the facility.
“We use a lot of gloves each and everyday so if other NGOs can come to our aid with such consumables we will appreciate it very much especially the examination gloves. We have well dedicated staff who work through out the day 24 hours despite the challenges and we are doing more that being expected of us.”
He bemoaned that many patients are unable to pay their medical bills.
“Some are not able to pay so we have this guarantee form that if you are not able to pay we allow you to fill it then you find somebody to guarantee for you and we can give you a grace period of maybe three months to come and pay but as you know most of them don’t come back to pay and there is nothing you can do. If for example, we use consumables that we’ve purchase to manage you and you and you don’t come back to pay it affect us a lot and sometimes auditors even pick up on us for allowing our clients to take away the bills that they have been given without paying so it affects our financial standing a lot.”
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM/Kojo Ansah
