21 17 PANTALLAS PORTÁTILES PARA PROYECTOR DE TRIPIE REFORZADA, SUPERFICIE BLANCO

4.1

BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON 37 MILITARY HOSPITAL

4.1.1 General Information

The 37 Military Hospital is a 400-bed general hospital situated about 4 kilometers from the Accra International Airport on the main Airport-Accra-Central Road (Independence Avenue Road). It is a walking distance from the Golden Tulip hotel, a popular and modern 4-star Hotel, and located directly opposite the Army Officers Mess. The hospital is centrally located and very accessible from every direction by vehicle. In the event of air evacuation of patients, it is the most convenient health facility in the country by virtue of its proximity to Accra International Airport. There is also provision for heli landing in the hospital and patients may be delivered directly by the helicopters from any part of the country, from installations out in the ocean and from neighboring countries especially those in conflict. As a military hospital, its primary objective is to provide health care to service personnel and their families, civilian employees of the Ministry of Defence and their families and ex-service personnel, all of who are grouped as ENTITLED PERSONNEL. It is however; open to all others including the general public as Non- Entitled personnel, for a fee. In addition to those roles, it serves as the government‟s emergency and disaster hospital and the United Nations LEVEL IV hospital in the West-African sub-region. It provides healthcare services to several international organizations and NGOs operating in Ghana and West Africa in general. It is a well-kept and neat facility that may be compared to any

28

facility of its kind anywhere in the world. As a military institution, it tries to marry up military traditions with those of a health delivery facility.

4.1.2 Brief History

During World War II, it became operationally and logistically necessary for Britain to take over the defence and security of the West-African sub-region. The responsibility was given to the War Office with Lt Gen Giffard as the General Officer commanding the West-African region. The General established his general headquarters in the then Gold Coast.

As a result of the war, there was an urgent need for Casualty Clearing Stations (CCS) and general military hospitals within the colonies to attend to the medical needs of the numerous service personnel deployed in combat in several theaters. General Giffard requested the War Office in the UK for the necessary logistics and administrative support for setting up the military hospital in the Gold Coast. The public works department was commissioned by the colonial office to construct the buildings and by 4th July 1941, became the base hospital in Accra and began operation as the 37th General Hospital within the British Empire. It had 29 wards with 9 for Europeans and the rest for Africans. Soon after the war in 1946, the size of the hospital was drastically reduced. In 1956, the hospital was re-designated Military Hospital of the Gold Coast to serve as one of the support service providers of the Armed Forces. In 1957, following Ghana‟s independence, the Military Hospital recruited its first indigenous doctors, nurses and other paramedical staff and commissioned them to man the hospital. They included Colonel SA Obeng, Colonel C Adjetey, Major Mercy Addo, Captain Margaret Abavana and Captain Sowah.

Over the years, the hospital has grown to become the second largest medical facility in Ghana‟s capital, Accra and the third largest in the country, after Korle-Bu (Accra) and Komfo Anokye

29

(Kumasi). It continues to be popularly known as the 37 Military Hospital with its Motto as “HEALTH FIRST”.

4.1.3 Command of the Hospital

Before independence and during the early years of independence, the hospital was manned mainly by British staff with the first commanding officer as Colonel MacFadden and Major King as Matron. However, following the Ghanaianization of the Ghana Armed Forces in 1961, the first indigenes to assume control of the Military Hospital were Lt Col Adjetey as Commanding Officer and Lt Col Christine Debrah as Matron. Colonel SA Obeng was the first native Ghanaian Director of Medical Services. Command has remained thereafter in the hands of competent Ghanaian Professionals to this day and the hospital continues to make strides both in infrastructural development and service delivery.

4.1.4 Roles of the Hospital

The 37 Military Hospital, as the major health facility provider for the Armed Forces at its inception was military-centered in its focus. Service personnel and families therefore constituted the main clientele of its operations and its roles were well defined and directed at this target population. The roles of the hospital were:

 To promote and maintain health and prevent disease

 To care for and treat those disabled by sickness or injury

 To form the necessary peacetime nucleus from which the medical services could expand in emergency and war.

30

These roles were later revised to include Medicare for troops and their families, senior civil servants of the Ministry of Defence, Veterans and some diplomatic Missions. These roles were yet again revised in conformity with temporary needs of the Armed Forces and the nation in general and the clientele base was expanded to cover in addition to the above, all civilian employees of the Ministry of Defence (and their families, senior government officials and their families and the general public). Currently, nearly 70% of all in-patients of the hospital belong to the Non-Entitled general public.

Additionally, the hospital now serves as the government‟s Emergency Response health facility and therefore becomes the centre of action in the event of major disasters in the country such as the Accra Stadium disaster that occurred in2001. The 37 Military Hospital also serves as the United Nations Level IV Medical facility in the West Africa sub region, providing health care to UN soldiers and workers from the conflict areas in the region. Several multinational companies and NGOs operating in Ghana and other West African countries also depend on the hospital for their health care needs. In this regard, the hospital has entered into agreement with several international organizations for emergency and routine health care for their work force including both expatriate and local staff. This may be attributed to the excellent health delivery services at the hospital and the relative peace enjoyed by Ghana in the sub region where conflict is rife. It is envisaged that these requests will continue to increase and the hospital, aware of this, is putting in place adequate measures to meet the envisaged demand on it.

31

4.2

ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE OF THE HOSPITAL

As a military institution, and for operational flexibility, technical efficiency and administrative ease, the hospital has been well structured to carry out its roles and tasks. It is therefore organized into working units and sub units-Divisions and Departments-on the basis of medical, paramedical and administrative lines, with their own heads. These subunits operate with a unified purpose and understanding solely aimed at the welfare of the patient. They operate with a Commanding Officer (CO) at the apex to deliver the best medical care in the country and the sub region as a whole. The CO is responsible to Higher Headquarters for the smooth running of the hospital. He is assisted by the second in command (2i/C), Administrative officers, the Matron, the Adjutant and the Unit Senior Warrant Officer formerly known as Regiment Sergeant Major or RSM for short.

The Military Hospital, like most general hospitals, is an amalgamation of several sub-units working in unison under the control and direction of the Headquarters to deliver effective health care

32