The concerned citizens of Damongo, capital of the Savannah Region have called on the Kimg and Overlord of the Gonja Kingdom Yagbonwura Tuntumba Boresa (I) and government to immediately declare to the people of the region the ownership of the West Gonja Hospital in Damongo.
This follows the sudden change of the name of the facility by the administrators of the hospital from West Gonja Hospital to St Anne’s Hospital which the group describes as illegal per documents available to them.
At a press briefing on 13th April, 2022, in Damongo, lead convener, Rev. Samuel Mahama Dinkeri indicated that the hospital is bedeviled with a lot of challenges including the mismanagement of the facility resulting in several deaths
Reverend Samuel Denkeri further indicated that even though the West Gonja hospital has become a referral hospital for various districts within the Savannah Region, the number of people seeking healthcare at the facility has drastically reduced to almost less than 50% with the hospital consistently featuring in the media over the years for the wrong reasons only ranging from Nurses Strike, resignation of doctors and power struggle among management which have resulted in deaths in the facility.
“A cursory look at the media for the past few years would reveal that the West Gonja Hospital has consistently been in the news for the wrong reasons. If it is not about Nurses Strike, then it is about the resignation of doctors or power struggle among management.
“Meanwhile some years back, the West Gonja Hospital was one of the best performing hospital in northern Ghana, attracting clients from the length and breadth of this country” the group claims.
Reverend Samuel Denkeri alleged further that; general healthcare delivery at the hospital currently very poor, and that there is ineffectiveness of National Health Insurance. He said the hospital seems to have returned to the cash and carry system because clients pay for virtually all the services at the hospital and there is discrimination among clients who access healthcare from the hospital, particularly on ethnic grounds and that there is constant unrest and conflicts among the workers and managers of the hospital which has persisted for several years.
He said about half of the doctors in Savannah Region are concentrated in the West Gonja Hospital in Damongo alone but there is no corresponding output from them due to reasons best known to managers of the hospital since constant unrest and conflicts among the workers and managers of the hospital has persisted for several years.
The concerned citizens of Damongo are therefore demanding from the King of Gonja Yagbonwura Tuntumba Boresa (I) and the government that the ownership of the hospital be declared to the public once and for all; that the name West Gonja Hospital, Damongo should not be changed for any reason; that the current board of the hospital be dissolved and reconstituted to reflect a true and proper representation of the various stakeholders and that at least 50% of the Human resource be replaced with natives who hold equal qualifications.
Source: Nkilgifmonline.com
