<<Print>>

The Nsawam Government Hospital in the Eastern Region risks recording high infant mortality cases due to poor facilities there. Officials of the hospital say their only incubator for premature babies is currently out of use. The Medical Superintendent of the facility, Dr. Kofi Ablor, who disclosed this to Ultimate Radio�s Easter Regional Correspondent, Francis Appiah Kubi, said the hospital had trained intensive care nurses and managed to purchase several logistics but indicated that the incubator was very expensive and above the means of the hospital. �When we deliver premature babies, we need to keep them in special incubators and that is a huge problem that the hospital is facing. We have an incubator which is not working well and so we don�t want to risk putting any babies in there.� the Medical Superintendent explained. Dr. Ablor added the hospital also has capacity challenges since it has not been given any major expansion or facelift since its construction in the 1980s. �At the time the hospital was built, the population wasn�t a problem. Now we are talking about a catchment area with not less than a hundred and twenty thousand (120,000) people. Apart from serving the Nsawam Adoagyire district, the hospital also serves Achimota, the West Akim area and its environs. This has over-stretched the hospital�s facilities forcing it to overuse its casualty ward or refer cases to the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.