The outbreak of the coronavirus has challenged health facilities across the country to map out measures to combat the disease efficiently.
In this regard, much attention has been skewed towards mainstream health facilities who administer care to Covid 19 patients.
Checks reveal that not only mainstream health facilities have been affected by the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The Accra Psychiatric Hospital is reported to have confirmed one patient contracting the Covid 19; this has further prompted attention to mental health facilities across the country.
Focal person on Infection Prevention and Control at the Ankaful Psychiatric Hospital, Mr. Francis Agyei Ayim has revealed that their bid to implement some preventive measures have brought financial constraints to the facility.
“Talking about the Ankaful Psychiatric Hospital in perspective, we were not prepared; our institution is not designed to deal with infectious disease of this kind and so it became very problematic for us providing this kind of care for our patients.”
He said in this regard they had to implement a number of administrative controls to restrict all forms of admissions at the beginning of the outbreak in the country which hugely affected their already pressed finances.
“Mental health delivery for us is largely funded by government, that is not to say the funds that we receive is enough to do what we do hence we meet these gabs with cash flows that come in from the admissions. Thus restricting all forms of admissions means that we are also restricting the funds that we receive to meet the gabs we would have to provide” he explained.
Although the facility is yet to record a case of the virus, Mr. Agyei Ayim noted that the facility is implementing some measures beyond screening of patients to combat the disease in the facility. He said although it is yielding good result, it has increased the work load of staff.
“Now we have to reduce our bed capacity to actually get the required space in terms of social distancing, we also partitioned the wards to reduce contacts among patients. We are also practicing source control in the wards – so every patient is being supervised and encouraged to wear a mask” , and additionally have created a respiratory clinic set out at the OPD that attends specifically to people with respiratory illness.
Since the facility was not designed to handle treatment of infectious diseases, the facility was structurally disadvantaged when the pandemic advanced in terms of preparedness.
This challenge, Mr. Ayim said, required some structural developments in conjunction with the provision of prescribed hygiene protocols to enable it provide proper care for their patients within the period regardless of their financial constraints.
He said since Ghana’s national strategy to combat the disease failed to consider siting treatment centres at mental health facilities their facility is in the course of building a treatment centre in the facility so that in a situation where a mentally ill patient suffers from the covid 19 treatment can be administered.
The Ankaful Psychiatric Hospital has created a quarantine ward for patients who may exhibit any symptoms of Covid 19. Mr. Ayim again mentioned that though the facility has benefitted from government and the benevolence of some individuals in acquiring PPE, fighting the pandemic still requires much support.
Source: Source: Joseph Kobina Amuah/ATLFMNEWS
