[ 2012-06-29 ]

Korle Bu Laundry In A Mess
The Laundry Department of the Korle-Bu Teaching
Hospital is on the verge of collapse. This is
because almost all the equipment at the laundry
have broken down with the exception of one washing
machine.

Also broken-down are drying, and ironing machines.
The situation has compelled the laundry staff to
adopt unorthodox means of operation outside the
traditional practices in major hospitals. For
instance, the laundry is rinsed by hands and hung
on drying lines because the custom made dryer is
not functioning.

The ironing boards which operate the same way are
also out of service, thus, additional hands have
been employed to do the ironing, manually.
Disclosing this to the 'Times', a source at the
hospital said a few weeks ago, two of the washing
machines were functioning, while the staff were
doing the greater washing by hand, despite the
huge loads from all the departments.

However, at the time of filing this story, the
Ghanaian times learnt that the washing by hand –
had been temporarily suspended.

An expert told the Times that studies conducted in
medical communities in other jurisdictions pointed
to the fact that much of the bacteria found in
hospital infections known as Hospital Acquired
Infections (HAP) were the same found in bed
sheets.

He advised that since there is a lot of risk
associated with hospital laundering, the laundry
staff must either be provided with adequate
working tools or protected through wearing
protective gear such as gloves, goggles and masks
to prevent getting infected by contaminated
laundries.

The source said “as the situation stands now, if
management cannot handle the laundry department
well, that function should be contracted to a
private laundry service, specialized in handling
hospital laundries.”

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a laundry
staff said they have complained about the
situation to the authorities, but nothing has been
done about it”.

He said “the volume of work from the various
departments is so huge that, the 36 workers at the
laundry are most often tasked beyond our physical
endurance.”

He said with the availability of the machines,
volume of work at the laundry was greatly
addressed with minimum risks.

Asked whether any of them had been affected by any
disease directly related with the laundry, he said
no such incident had occurred among them.

Mr. Mustapha Muhammed, the Public Relation Officer
of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, when contacted,
said the situation was being addressed under the
National Equipment Replacement Programme, being
undertaken by the government.

Under the government, the government has arranged
for $250 million to replace obsolete equipment in
all the teaching hospitals in the country.

Mr. Muhammed said the programme would also entail
the refurbishment of the key facilities in all the
teaching hospitals.

Under the package, the laundry, catering and
radiology departments would be provided with
modern equipment to ensure efficiency in the
departments.

Mr. Muhammed said 13 out of the 33 theatres at the
hospital would also be refurbished under the
package.

However, he assured “there is no cause for alarm,
since the hospital ensures that laundry is clean
and free from contaminants and micro-organisms.”

Source - Ghanaian Times

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