La General Hospital lacks essential equipment at its NICU

The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at the La General Hospital, located at South La Estate of the La Dadekotopon Municipal Assembly in the Greater Accra Region is under serious pressure as many of its equipment are either outmoded or babies born per day are more than the equipment needed to support them.
The Unit, which is more or less an Emergency Centre for average number of 25 fresh babies received per day, that deserve special care and treatment in order to grow well, urgently needs equipment like Continues Positive Airwaves Pressure (C-PAP), Monitors, Sterilizers, Perfusors, Flow meters, Concentrators as well as Baby incubators to function effectively and efficiently.
The current Unit which is just like a single room (for the babies) with a porch (where mothers sit to breast feed their babies) are too small, for that matter Nurses are appealing for bigger and well ventilated place, to avert infections.
The state of affairs are so alarming that, Nurses who are handling these innocent babies are compiled to put two babies in an incubator and cot made for one baby, leading to baby crowding.
They say, “sometimes we have to rotate the babies so as to attend to all of them, no matter the number of babies who are rushed from The Labour Ward to This Place for attention”, she disclosed anonymously.
Another significant challenge our reporter has uncovered has to do with mosquitos at the Labour Ward and other Wards which serve as a resting place for women who delivered or yet to deliver.
In an interview with Administrator of the Hospital, Atindaana Nsobilla, the problems are not limited to The Unit alone, “generally we are constraint by physical space, and that translate into the whole structure cannot contain the current need of the population we serve”. “…..in view of the physical space constraint, it is most likely that, the place will be congested in terms of babies born here or referred from other facilities (sister facilitates) for special care”, Mr. Nsobilla admitted.
The Administrator said, there is urgent need for expansion and replacement of some of the equipment to enhance the survival of the infants.
NICU Centre is basically established to provide womb-like environment for new babies who react negatively to the external environment.
Medical practitioners believe that, one out of ten women are likely to deliver prematurely hence the NICU to prevent infant death.
La General Hospital is noted for its NICU services within the Region and premature babies from other Hospitals are sent there for intensive care including pasteurization, incubation, monitoring etc etc.
Story by Edzorna Francis Mensah