The Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH) New Born Intensive Care Unit (NICU), has appealed to philanthropist and organizations for incubators to help them take care of the increasing number of pre-term and low birth babies.
The unit last year admitted about 2,300 pre-term (babies born before 37 completed gestational weeks).
A total of 850 of pre-term babies were also admitted in the first quarter this year. The pre-term babies, according to the Senior Paediatrician and head of Paediatrics at TTH, Dr Alhassan Abdul Mumin constitute about 30% on admission.
The pre-term plus the low birth weight (babies whose weight level are less than 2.5 kilograms of normal baby weight, is also about 50%.
The 50% babies on admission he said all needs to incubators but because they are inadequate, the unit sometimes pair the babies.
Some of babies spent more than 90 days before they are discharge from the hospital.
The risk of infections Dr Abdul Mumin noted was high when the babies are pared in one incubator.
The unit he said still need an additional 20 incubators to the 30 the unit is currently to be able to function without paring babies.
Speaking to the media after taken delivery of 3 incubators from a seasoned broadcast Journalist, Mr Kwami Sefa Kayi founded Korokoo Charities Foundation, Dr Abdul Mumin explained that even though there was an of Kangaroo Mother care to keep the babies warm, but the babies conditions still need to be stabilized medically.
On the poor maintenance culture, the paediatrician expressed the hope that the plant preventive maintenance unit of TTH will do their best to keep the incubators in good conditions.
The Senior Paediatrician who took journalist round the unit said the nurses at the NICU go through a lot of stress because of the nature of the ward couple with inadequate staff.
The inadequate staff he explained cloud increase infections rate because the nurses has no time wash their hands before attending to others.
The NICU unit, Dr Mumin said needs an additional specialist, a medical officer and nurses because he is the specialist, head and also a lecturer at the University for Development Studies (UDS) Medical School.
“We have a deficit of a specialist, a medical officer and nurses”, Dr Mumin stated.
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