Brigadier General Thomas Acquinas Gbireh, the Commander of the Ghana Armed Forces Critical Care and Emergency Hospital at Burma Camp, says the facility is yet to fully operationalise its emergency unit due to major infrastructural and logistical constraints.
He said that although the facility was originally established during the COVID-19 pandemic with support from the United Nations to cater for critically ill patients across the West African sub-region, it currently lacked some key components to facilitate a full emergency service delivery.
“There is an emergency unit, but it is not currently being operationalised, mainly because we do not have any toilets or a liquid waste disposal facility as part of it. We also do not have the case manager for the emergency,” Brig. Gen Gbireh said.
He explained that the hospital currently focuses largely on intensive care, high-dependency care, dialysis and blood banking services.
During an inspection visit by the Minister of Health, Mr Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, on Thursday, Brig. Gen. Gbireh explained that the hospital was initially designed mainly for intensive care and high-dependency services for COVID-19 patients.
“So, that is how this came to be established, dictated by what was inherited from the UN,” he stated.
He said the facility was subsequently developed into an intensive care and high-dependency centre, with dialysis services added later because the United Nations left behind a large number of dialysis machines and related equipment.
The UN later procured two additional dialysis providers to support treatment at the facility.
Brig. Gen. Gbireh noted, however, that despite the presence of an emergency unit, it had not been fully operationalised because the centre lacked a proper sewage and liquid waste disposal system as well as case management infrastructure.
The facility mainly received patient spillovers from the 37 Military Hospital and referrals from other health institutions.
He said in most instances, doctors at the hospital engaged directly with referring physicians before patients were transferred for specialised care.
Brig. Gen. Gbireh disclosed that the hospital currently has a 60-bed capacity, which could be expanded to 100 beds when fully developed.
The visit formed part of a series of inspections by the Health Minister aimed at assessing emergency healthcare facilities in the Greater Accra Region and addressing challenges associated with the “no-bed syndrome.”
The Minister has recently visited the Greater Accra Regional Hospital (Ridge Hospital), where concerns were raised over non-functional critical equipment, including MRI and CT scan machines.
The Ministry of Health has intensified monitoring of emergency units following public concerns over poor emergency healthcare delivery, particularly after the death of a patient reportedly linked to delays in accessing emergency care.
President John Dramani Mahama recently announced plans to repurpose the Burma Camp COVID-era emergency facility into a fully functional critical care centre to ease pressure on major referral hospitals in Accra.
The government is also overseeing the reconstruction of the La General Hospital to add about 160 beds to Ghana’s healthcare system upon completion.
