By: Hamza Lansah Lolly ]
Laboratory services at the Northern Regional Hospital popular known as Tamale Central hospital has been shutdown for the past three weeks due to the lack of basic amenities such as cotton, gloves, needles, syringes, soap and among other essentials to deliver crucial healthcare delivery.
Laboratory technicians and other workers comes to work but there is nothing to work with.
The laboratory doesn’t even have a soap and detergents for cleansing.
The hospital’s Blood Bank, located in the same building with the laboratory also do not have bleeding bags and other essentials to deliver quality services.
The laboratory is an essential part of the hospital that provides enormous medical services to clients including analyze body fluids, tissue, cells to detect, diagnosis and other crucial patient care services. Again, services range from routine tests such as blood and urine analysis, to specialised tests like genetic or molecular diagnostics.
Our investigations revealed that, the laboratory used to provide services to over hundred patients daily but for months now patients after consultations with Doctors have to go to private labs for tests.
Patients including those on admission that needed critical laboratory services have to depend on lab services outside the hospital.
The situation at the Tamale Central hospital now Northern Regional Hospital is very dire as almost all the crucial patient care areas including the patients wards, maternity and OPD lacks basic items to deliver quality health services to the people of Tamale.
“We don’t even have a soap to wash, this hospital is rotten” A worker laments
During our investigations we found out that the laboratory again lacks essential laboratory equipments to work. They are currently using an old fashioned equipments including a ‘Daadaa” old computer. Most essential tools at the lab are either outmoded or not functioning.
Again there is no any modern lab equipment befitting the status of the hospital.
The scenes of the Northern Regional hospital laboratory and Blood Bank is in a sorry state as lab technicians work in ruins.
