Upper East Regional Hospital director calls for immediate teaching hospital status

The Medical Director of the Upper East Regional Hospital, Dr Joseph Kojo Tambil, has asked the government to upgrade the Bolgatanga facility to a teaching hospital without delay, arguing that the region is being left behind in the share-out of equipment and specialist support.

Dr Tambil made the appeal at a stakeholder meeting in Bolgatanga held during a nationwide sensitisation tour by the Administrator of the Ghana Medical Trust Fund (MahamaCares), Adjoa Obuobia Darko-Opoku, according to A1 Radio.

He described the hospital as a well-run secondary and referral facility, but said its status keeps it at the back of the queue. In his account, teaching hospitals are served first when equipment and other resources are allocated, and regional hospitals receive what is left. Because the Upper East has no teaching hospital, he said, the region consistently misses out.

Dr Tambil pointed to teaching hospitals in Tamale, Kumasi, Cape Coast and Sunyani as examples of facilities that already offer advanced care in other parts of the country. He said the timing of an upgrade mattered more than where a new teaching hospital is eventually sited.

He also proposed that the region should have both a teaching hospital, to strengthen specialist services, and a university hospital linked to the Navrongo Health Research Centre and the University of Technology and Applied Sciences (UTAS) in Navrongo.

A1 Radio’s report did not include a response from the Ministry of Health or the Ghana Medical Trust Fund to the request.

The appeal is the latest in a series of calls from the hospital during the MahamaCares tour. The Ghana News Agency reported on 25 October that the hospital’s leadership had also appealed for an oncology unit, and on 26 October that it had called for investment in intensive care to reduce maternal deaths.

The Ghana Medical Trust Fund, branded MahamaCares, was set up to help patients with chronic and specialist conditions such as cancer, kidney disease and heart conditions meet the cost of treatment. For many Upper East families, such care currently means long and costly journeys to facilities outside the region.

Source: A1 Radio — https://www.a1radioonline.com/84559/convert-upper-east-regional-hospital-into-teaching-hospital-now-medical-director-urges-government/index.html