Supplies for Effia Nkwanta Regional Hospital A&E

The Effia Nkwanta Regional Hospital in Takoradi has been kind enough to host me as a student for my elective placement. To say I've had my eyes opened is an understatement! Their work is tireless and their resources extremely limited.

The people of Ghana are not lucky enough to have our wonderful NHS. Their health service is private. If you can’t afford treatment, you can’t have it. Often this means that lifesaving interventions aren’t given because payment can’t be made. And sometimes by the time the people seek help from the emergency department, they are SO sick that they need much more treatment that they would have if they’d been treated earlier.

This hospital has been my work home for the last 2 weeks. I have another 2 weeks remaining and I have been incredibly humbled by the experience. This extremely busy A & E department deals with a wide variety of cases every day, including TB, Malaria, sickle cell crisis, necrotic ulcers, severe trauma, undiagnosed heart conditions etc. I have seen all of these in the short time I have been here!

The nurses and doctors here are amazing and I have learned so much from them, that I will take back into my practice in the UK. But they are working hard with very little resources, which sometimes has awful, awful consequences!

Trivial examples of this include having attempted to cannulate a patient and then being unable to track down a plaster to fix it in place (because 1 roll is shared by the whole department). Or not being able to cut the clothes off of a trauma patient in order to stabilise their tib/fib fracture, because there are no Tough Cuts (trauma scissors) in the department. There are SO MANY examples of how simple things that we take for granted in our ambulances and hospitals, could make a world of difference here.

A more visceral example is how reusable, cleanable box splints would be invaluable. I treated an 8 year old girl with a distal tib/fib unstable and open fracture who was brought in by ambulance and was lucky enough to have had the splint in this picture used. It’s made of wood and wrapped in bandages! By contrast we were forced to stabilise the same fracture in a man a few days ago, with a cardboard box!

I want to help and so asked Sister Regina for a list of things she knows they need. This is the list she wrote (it's not exhaustive, because she didn't want to ask for too much from me):

Electronic BP apparatus

Pulse oximeters

Suturing set

Thermometer (digital or infrared)

Screen

Wheel chair

Commode

Dressing set

Drip stand

Paediatric ambubag

Suction catheters

Plaster

Disposable gloves

Syringe and needles

Cannulas (all sizes)

Giving sets

Dressing scissors

Oropharyngeal airway

The list looks long but trust me, it barely scratches the surface. But having a boost of these things would make SUCH a difference to not only the doctors and nurses providing care, but more importantly to the patients receiving it!

Having screens that actually hide the patient would provide dignity to patients undergoing procedures, or receiving personal care from their families. Having multiple observation apparatus would allow triage to operate at the same time as regular OBS on the emergency wards. Additional cannulas, giving sets and suturing kits would allow more prompt treatment, increasing the patients chance of survival.

I sat with the Director of Work the World here in Takoradi and got an understanding of the prices for the items on Sister Regina’s list, from a supplier in Accra (it's not as simple as ordering from amazon here!). Just £2000 would pay for 3 new screens, a wheelchair, a commode, and multiples of EVERYTHING else on that list! £2,000 could be transformational to the quality of care the hospital could provide to patients here.

I will be donating a chunk of my own money to this cause, and buying supplies that I can afford for them. But I'm going to ask for more help from you!

I would love for us to be able to provide more of the items on this list. I'd love to make a longer term difference by giving them tools rather than just consumables (although consumables really help too).

Please, please, please, give a little (or a lot) to help this amazing department that has welcomed me with open arms and taught me so much these last few weeks!

*Photos taken and posted with permission*