Tamale hospital appeals for support as three premature babies share one incubator
Incubator
The Pediatric and Child Health Unit of the Tamale Teaching Hospital in the Northern Region is in need of additional incubators to cater for the increased number of preterm babies on admission at the facility.
The Head of the Pediatric and Child Health Department of the Tamale Teaching Hospital, Dr. Alhassan Abdul Mumuni in an interview with the media disclosed that the Tamale Teaching Hospital which serves as a referral facility for the five regions of the north currently has 15 functional incubators that cater for about 25 preterm babies on admission at the facility and that is affecting quality health care delivery.
“Today we are not at our peak so we have two babies in most of the incubators but when we are at our peak we can get three, sometimes four babies in one incubator and these are not babies born from the same mother and they are not supposed to be in the same incubator because they might have a different illness and one can transfer it to each other so if you keep them in one incubator the risk of infection is very high and infection is one of the lead complications that can lead to the death of a preterm baby,” he said.
The Kangaroo mother care unit has only seven beds serving mothers with some mothers who do not have access to beds sitting on chairs to take care of their preterm babies.
The Head of Pediatric and Child Health Department of the Tamale Teaching Hospital lamented the lack of accommodation space for parents who are on admission to take care of their babies.
“Because we don’t have space for parents, they end up sleeping around which is a big problem because when daybreak they have not rested enough and it can demoralize mothers and can make it difficult for them to fully participate in Kangaroo mother care of their babies,” he lamented.
He appealed to the government, philanthropists, institutions, individuals to come to the aid of the Pediatric and Child Health Department of the Tamale Teaching Hospital to enable them to provide quality health care to preterm babies and parents
Source: Zion Abdul Rauf