Management of the Tolon Government Hospital in the northern region is at high risk of losing the modern state of the art medical equipment installed at the facility due to inadequate supply of water to enable the full functioning of the machines.
The supply of water to the facility has been erratic since it was commissioned by the Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Buwumia, somewhere in 2020 and work commenced months later to provide quality healthcare services to the people of the district and its neighboring communities.
The Medical Superintendent of the hospital, Dr Osman Abdulai in an exclusive interview said the hospital has no reliable source of water and sometimes depend on tankers for water supply though a large water reservoir was constructed as part of the hospital project.
He asserted that the water reservoir is sitting on the ground and requires the pumping machine to accelerate the flow of water through the pipelines connected to the various wards but however stated this is not done as anticipated due to the gravity of the land.
He continued, “Actually the people have done the system in a such a way that when the water levels go below half, it can no longer pump to even serve the entire hospitals, the remaining water is reserved in case of fire outbreak”.
In view of this, Dr Abdulai indicated the hospital management has resorted to fetching the water from the hydrants to carry out their daily operations despite the nice systems installed for all these purposes.
“What we have done is that, we had to get a veronica bucket [improvised it] to fetch the water from the hydrants and come pour it so that we can still wash before we can do our surgeries.”
“We have two large autoclave machines which is use to sterilize things for us to do surgeries but because the water is not flowing, we unable to use it and we have to go and get a small potable one where that one you can fetch water into it and sterilize things before you can use it” he lamented.
The Medical Supt emphasized most of the systems installed rely on regular water supply to function efficiently but the staff are unable to use some of them because of the water situation.
He disclosed the two year warranty for all the equipment that were installed at the facility has expired back in May this and that any damage now will be the liability of the hospital and for that matter the government.
“My main worry is that, the contractors when they handed over; there was a two-year warranty on every equipment that has a problem so that they could fix it. The warranty expired in May this year, which means should anything that has a problem, machine or equipment, it is now our liability. Now, my worry is that, how about the machines that we didn’t have the opportunity to test them because the water wasn’t flowing through them and in case we get water and they are unable to work” he queried.
Vehicle
Meanwhile, the Medical Superintendent has also complained that the hospital lacks a vehicle for administrative purposes, a situation he stated has compelled the hospital authority to use an ambulance stationed at the facility for their daily errands.
