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Pregnant women and those seeking surgery at the La General Hospital in Accra who cannot climb the stairs to the second floor are carried in trolleys because the lift has been dysfunctional for more than 20 years. The hospital houses critical wards such as Labour, Surgical and Medical on its second floor, a development the Medical Director of the hospital, Dr Patrick Frimpong, described as disheartening and frustrating. The lift has now gathered cobwebs and dust and serves as a potential haven for rodents and reptiles. High-profile visits It is estimated that it will cost 30,000 Euros to refurbish the lift, a quotation that is way above the hospital�s internally generated funds. �Successive Health Ministers have visited us to get first-hand information on the situation of the lift and the general condition of the hospital, but nothing positive has come out of the visits so far. �The latest high-profile visitor is President John Dramani Mahama, who directed the hospital to contact the Ministry of Health, and that is how far our appeal has reached,� Dr Frimpong said. Frustration The visibly frustrated medical director said the hospital had to get labourers to always carry weak patients upstairs and said that was adversely affecting quality health delivery at the facility. Dr Frimpong, who said he was tired of talking about issues relating to the lift, said a number of individuals, institutions and media organisations had had discussions with him, with promises to support, �but nothing has come out of such discussions�. �It hurts. Imagine carrying a pregnant woman from the ground floor to the second floor! I have been here for 13 years and the lift has never functioned. Indeed, it has been in this state for 20 years or more,� he told the Daily Graphic. Asked whether it was normal to have such critical wards upstairs, instead of on the ground floor, Dr Frimpong said it was not a normal practice but �this is what we came to meet and we cannot do anything about it, even though it is not good�. �Personally, I have to always manoeuvre my way upstairs to teach or attend to patients and this is not easy for me. I�m sure it is the same with my other staff members,� he said. The Hospital Administrator, Mr Philip F. Korto, who conducted the Daily Graphic round the first and second floors of the hospital, said it became even more disturbing when a patient needed to be given oxygen, �because one labourer has to carry the cylinder with the oxygen, while the others carry the patient�.