The Franciscan Missionaries of Mary (FMM) Congregation has a Poly-Clinic at Tinga in Ghana’s Savanna Region, which serves thousands of people.
The aim of the Poly-Clinic is to save the lives of the ordinary people in that part of Ghana who lacked proper medical care though there is a government clinic there.
The polyclinic though serving the people has a particular challenge that needs urgent attention which is victims of snake bites absconding after treatment at the facility and lack of ambulance.
The absconding phenomenon is indeed one of the biggest problems of the people of Tinga and it is interesting to note that since the medicine for snake bites is very expensive, mostly after the health facility authority saves the lives of the victims, some abscond just to avoid paying for the medication.
This attitude by some of the victims of snake bites has become worrisome leaving the Sisters the FMM Sisters struggle to get the money and buy the medicine again to save the lives of other people.
Sometimes, before the Sisters would get the money to buy the medicine used on the absconded victims, some patients also end up losing their lives.
Some other people also beg to be paying bit by bit until they are able to finish, but in all, even since the establishment of the Poly-Clinic there, the death toll, especially from snake bite has reduced.
Aside from this problem, the Poly-Clinic’s only ambulance has broken down, even when it was working, the Poly-Clinic still needed one to add, because the people of Tinga have a culture of self medication both local treatment and buying of medicines at the counter, be it snake bite or any other sickness, and if all these fails and they are in a critical condition, that is only when they run to the Poly-Clinic, which cannot handle some of the critical sicknesses.
While the ambulance is on the way, other critical conditions of illness may arrive which also needs referrals.
The FMM Sisters have done its part to continuously repair the old ambulance. As of now, the old ambulance cannot be repaired again, according to the mechanics.
In view of this, whenever there is a serious case and they want to arrange with the government ambulance to come and take them to the referred hospitals, the process alone takes a long time, and sometimes by the time the ambulance will arrive or will reach the referral hospital, some death casualties are experienced. Others too, do not even have the money to take the ambulance.
There was a situation where a mans daughter was referred, he didn’t have the money, so he pleaded with those in change of the ambulance service to take the child while he goes to borrow money to sort out the bills, but they refused, so he went and looked for the money first, but by the time he arrived, the daughter had passed on.
This usually brings a lot of pain to the Religious Sisters whose aim is to save lives.
The Sisters and the people of Tinga would therefore be happy and blessed if philanthropists could support the poly clinic with an ambulance to continue to save lives to propel their mission of health and healing ministry.
By Sr. Grace Ateriyine Atazina, FMM
(Catholic Sister Communicators Network-Ghana- CASCON-GH)
