Essam Gov’t Hospital is the best hospital in the Western Region for the year 2017

• Posted on February 28, 2018February 28, 2018
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

According to a peer review mechanism which is used by Ghana Health Service to assess hospitals, Essam Government Hospital is the best hospital in the Western Region for the year 2017. 

Peer review mechanism is a quality improvement tool used in the Ghana Health Service. This mechanism assesses how each hospital is doing based on nine specific thematic area. These are environment, infection prevention and control, emergency systems, quality assurance, clinical practice, client care, occupational health and safety issues,governance and regional directors score for innovations and organisation.

In the Western Region, the peer review mechanism has been championed by Dr Atsu Dodor who is the Deputy Director-Clinical Care of the western region. After each assessment each hospital in the region is given a score. A regional league table of hospital is drawn to show the position of each hospital and the top three awarded.

2017 Peer Review was very competitive as all hospitals wanted to be crowned the best hospital in the region. This gives the hospital a lot of pride and respect and also motivates staff to provide better service to patients.

Essam Government Hospital was adjudged the best hospital for the year 2017 with a score of 94.5%. Wassa Akropong and Juabeso government hospitals were first and second runner ups respectively.

According to Dr Emmanuel Kwesi Coomson, the Medical Superintendent of Essam Government Hospital, it took a lot of hard work and dedication to duty on the part of the management and staff of the hospital to achieve such a great feat.

Essam Government Hospital is the farthest hospital from the regional capital. It is located in the Bia West district in the northern part of the Western Region. It is a 96 bed capacity hospital run by 180 dedicated workforce of various cadres.

The hospital attends to the health needs of both the Bia East and Bia west districts and beyond, even attending to client from neighbouring ivory coast. Despite this great acheivemnt, the hospital has challenges that need to be addressed.

The hospital has not been commissioned since it was established in 2012. As a result a lot of the staff have been temporal for years being paid salaries from the meagre Internally Generated funds. Also the second phase of the hospital is way overdue. Currently, the block for children is being share between the children and adult male patients, while the maternity block is being shared between the maternity unit and female ward.

A new block is also needed for reproductive and child health as well as specialized care like dental, ENT, Eye, Physiotherapy, etc.

It is our hope that the government of the day will help the hospital to put up the second phase as soon as possible.

Staff accommodation is also another problem as the hospital has none. This means all staff have to rent accommodation in the town. We need accommodation for , at least the critical staff around the hospital. The hospital has 62.5 acres of land donated to it by the chief of Essam Nana Anini Baffour II. Estate developer are invited to put up accommodation units for the hospital in a Public Private Partnership venture.

It is the vision of the hospital to ensure all people in our catchment area have prompt access to affordable primary health care at all times.