Denkyembour District Health Committee Visits St. Dominic Hospital in Akwatia
Posted by Elvis Offei-Bekoe - 21st June, 2022
The District Health Committee of the Denkyembour District Assembly; the highest decision making body on health which is mandated to oversee all issues regarding health within the district held its second quarterly meeting on Tuesday 21st June 2022 at the District Assembly’s conference hall. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss issues that had been raised in the previous meetings and more importantly, pay a working visit to St Dominic Hospital in Akwatia to meet their management and ascertain their challenges.
The chairman for the committee; Mr Daniel Appiagyei welcomed all members to the meeting and expressed his utmost gratitude to all members for attending the meeting on such a short notice. He then took the house through the previous minutes after which there were further discussions, deliberations, corrections and adoption of the previous minutes as a working documents for the committee.
The team then moved to the St Dominic Hospital in Akwatia and were welcomed by management of the hospital. The Deputy Administrator for the hospital; Mr Hayford Asare-Williams, on behalf of management, welcomed the committee to the hospital. He mentioned that it was a privilege to receive the committee. They explained that, as a hospital they are faced with many challenges although they are arguably the best institution that provides health services in the sub region. Majority of their challenges was the upgrade of the hospital status into a district hospital. He stated that, the hospital has a B2 status which is a health centre with a doctor and this has affected the allocation of resources, logistics and funds with regards to National Health Insurance Authority.
Other challenges raised included high turnover of their staff especially the professional nurses and physicians. They also complained about medicines that were sold on the market that claims to cure a lot of diseases turn up to create a lot of complications on patients and appealed to the committee to look into the matter.
The Secretary for the committee who also doubles as the District Director for Health; Mr Daniel Derby took management of the hospital through the mandate and functions of the District Health committee. He then appealed to management of the hospital to channel all their grievances to the committee.
The committee was then taken on a tour to some of the major facilities of the hospital. The chairman for the committee on behalf of the entire committee, expressed his gratitude to management of the hospital for their warn reception.