Even though this is good news, consumables available to sustain the unit in functioning effectively can only last for six months.

3FM has also gathered that there are no trained biomedical engineers in Ghana who can assist in maintaining the machines at the centre.

The Anesthetic Department is therefore calling on corporate Ghana to intervene in ensuring the continuous functioning of the centre.

Head of the Department, Professor Ernest Aniteye, who led some businesses to inspect the facility, lamented the maintenance culture at the hospital.

“The maintenance agreement has nothing to do with us. It was decided centrally. We have been told recently that a company belonging to a group of Indians would come and service them. So it’s a big problem for us. So those are the issues we are battling with,” he explained.

“If I have ordered this equipment, I would have ordered consumables that would last for a year. The equipment can only be used for one patient. We have told the hospital to start thinking of replacing this equipment because we are going to have issues with these ones,” he added.

Members of cooperate Ghana have promised to open a trust fund in the name of the unit to support the smooth running of the unit.

Chairman of Atlantic Holdings and leader of the delegation, Alex Asiedu said the fund will be opened as soon as possible and called on policy makers and leaders of the hospital to show leadership in running the unit.

“I knew it was bad but didn’t know it was this bad. We are at this destination simply because of leadership. We have decided to set up a fund initially capitalized by Atlantis holdings then we bring other cooperate entities on board later.”

The hospital’s ICU was shut down in August 2014 for a renovation.
Source: Sarah Parku | 3FM | tv3network.com