Volta Health Directorate upgrades equipment use with KOFIH support
THE Volta Regional Health Directorate, with support from the Korea Foundation for International Healthcare (KOFIH), is promoting quality healthcare delivery in the region by ensuring the effective use, maintenance and repair of medical equipment.
The support from KOFIH, which included the renovation and retooling of the Volta Regional Clinical Engineering Unit in Ho with modern medical equipment, has enabled the Directorate to provide specialised technical services to health facilities, thereby improving service delivery.
The Volta Regional Clinical Engineer, Mr Israel Gbeckor-Kove, disclosed this at a two-day workshop for management staff of health facilities across the 18 municipalities and districts in the Volta Region.
The workshop focused on the effective utilisation of the KOFIH-refurbished Regional Clinical Engineering Unit.
Mr Gbeckor-Kove said the unit had rolled out a programme to educate key health workers, including nurses, on the proper use and handling of medical equipment to prolong their lifespan.
He explained that the unit would also conduct regular visits to health facilities across the region to offer repair and maintenance services, including the calibration of medical equipment, to ensure optimal performance and improved patient care.
According to him, many hospitals still possessed outmoded and non-functioning equipment, noting that the availability of modern tools at the Regional Clinical Engineering Unit would help save hospitals significant amounts of money previously spent on repairs.
Mr Gbeckor-Kove observed that several medical equipment in hospitals across the region needed to be disposed of, stressing that some equipment could not be overused, and that the continuous use of obsolete devices instead of replacing them posed risks to patients.
“Some of the equipment used at hospitals need to be calibrated to ensure that they work effectively, since defective equipment can give inaccurate results on patients. Equipment that has been used for long periods must be replaced and may not require repairs,” he said.
Mr Gbeckor-Kove added that health workers sometimes continued to use malfunctioning equipment unknowingly, citing blood pressure monitoring devices as an example.
He noted that faulty equipment could provide inaccurate readings, which only experienced doctors might be able to detect.
The Volta Regional Research Officer of the Regional Health Directorate and Regional Coordinator of the KOFIH project, Mr Adams Agbeko, said the project was aimed at ensuring the effective use and maintenance of hospital equipment to promote quality healthcare delivery in the region.
Mr Agbeko explained that the KOFIH programme also sought to digitalise health facilities within the project area to enable hospital management to easily identify faulty and outmoded equipment for timely repair or replacement.
FROM SAMUEL AGBEWODE, HO
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