Directorate merge Ridge and Adabeaka (Page 3)

Sat. June 3, 2010

THE Greater Accra Health Directorate of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) has merged the Ridge Hospital and the Adabraka Polyclinic both in Accra to ensure efficient healthcare delivery.
The merger, which took effect from Thursday, July 1, 2010, is also to ease pressure on the hospital’s facilities and the congestion which usually occurs there.
Under the new arrangement, the Ridge Hospital will operate as a referral hospital with the Adabraka Polyclinic serving as the Outpatient Department (OPD), under a new designation "Ridge Hospital OPD, Adabraka".
To ensure that patients are well taken care of, the health directorate, under the leadership of the Greater Accra Regional Director of Health Services, Professor Irene Agyepong Amarteyfio, has arranged for the transfer of all the health professionals and paramedics currently working at the OPD section of the Ridge Hospital to the Adabraka Polyclinic.
These include doctors, nurses, laboratory technicians, pharmacists, X-ray technicians, among other staff to enable them to continue with the services they provide.
In an interview with the Daily Graphic, the Deputy Director, Clinical Care, at the Regional Health Directorate, Mrs Sarah Amissah-Bamfo, said the decision was taken to ensure that the large number of cases whichare reported to the Ridge Hospital on daily basis was properly distributed and adequately handled accordingly.
Dr Amissah-Bamfo explained that in addition to being a referral hospital, the Ridge Hospital would continue to cater for all emergency and accident cases and provide gynaecological services, surgeries and all others that required the attention of a specialist.
She pointed out that the Ghana Health Service 2009 Annual Report indicated that Ridge Hospital took care of about 701 outpatients a day, the Adabraka Polyclinic, which is as big as the Kaneshie and Maamobi hospitals put together, cared for about 134 outpatients, a figure considered low under the circumstance.
She said the Adabraka Polyclinic would operate a 24-hour service with a well-equipped ambulance service with a medical technician at its disposal to send emergency cases to the Ridge Hospital, which is within the same vicinity.
The Deputy Director said the decision had been thoroughly discussed among the management of the two health facilities, the chief of Adabraka, as well as staff of the two hospitals.
She took the opportunity to appeal to the public to bear with the hospital and comply with the changes accordingly.