This post is a little off topic for my travel blog, however I feel that if you travel to many places, you will have definitely encountered a hospital visit or two. It is important for me to explain what is actually happening in many hospitals in Africa and especially in northern Ghana, travel is not always about the perfect sunset or the relaxing day you spent on a beach.
Having lived in Africa and been a patient at many hospitals for more than the last three years I thought I had a pretty good understanding of some of the practices and problems these hospitals have to face on a daily basis. It wasn’t until working for the NGO, Ghana Medical Help, in northern Ghana that I realised just how much is lacking in terms of facilities, medical equipment, education, organisation and professionalism within these hospitals.
I have witnessed varying degrees of cleanliness, patient confidentiality, sympathy and basic care.
I have no education in the medical field, but as an English educated woman I feel there are basic things screaming out to me as I delve further into the medical world here in Ghana. It is very easy to point fingers and blame the staff running these hospitals, but it goes way further right back to the government and its ability to educate and provide for these hospitals. Everyone perceives Ghana as an African country of success and in part it is; there are religious groups living side by side in harmony, it is mostly a stable country politically and compared to other African nations it has a reasonable economy. However the part of Ghana the world loves and knows is in the south and nobody ventures up to the north, not even the Ghanaians themselves.
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