INSTALL STREELIGHTS BETWEEN EFFIA-NKWANTA HOSPITAL, FIJAI....Page 25

Story: Moses Dotsey Aklorbortu, Sekondi

Nurses residing at the nurses’ quarters near the GBC office and those on night shift are never safe until they arrive at their workplace at the Effia-Nkwanta Regional Hospital in Sekondi.
This is because there are no street lights along the road from their residence to the hospital. They have to make it to their workplace in darkness.
Those on night duty therefore have to seek the assistance of those not on duty to escort them to the hospital. They have complained that some of their colleagues were attacked on many occasions by thieves who made away with their belongings.
This came to light when this reporter drove through the quarters to the hospital at night. The road was in total darkness and the nurses who are mainly young ladies have become the targets of social deviants.
During the visit this reporter saw three nurses who were walking with their hand bags under their armpits and trying to avoid the social miscreants by moving quickly to the road when they saw the light of the vehicle.
They said they were scared and went into hiding when “we saw a man running in our direction in the darkness only to move out when the road was clear”.
Unfortunately, the location of their quarters is quite a distance from the main road and the hospital. Therefore, commercial vehicles and taxis refuse to ply that route.
“If you are on duty, you have to wait for your friends to finish whatever they are doing and then escort you to the hospital premises,” they lamented.
There were no lights on the premises of the health facility and the whole area was very dark. The only lights seen were the flashes of light from headlights of vehicles or lights from residents living around the hospital.
Provision has been made for street lights in the area, but there are no bulbs and the lamp holders are very old, some of them even without wires.
The nurses said when the nation suffered from the energy crisis the situation was understandable but expected that after the crisis something would be done to ensure that the street lights were restored to provide some security for them.
The fear of the nurses aside, some residents also condemned the insecurity the darkness had exposed them to, and urged the authorities to provide street lights in the area to save life and property.
When contacted, the Effia-Nkwanta Regional Hospital Administrator, Mr Micah Bediako, described the situation as unfortunate and that the hospital had provided bulbs and connected light to the area on many occasions.
“But the sad aspect is that when you provide the facility, at night, some unscrupulous members of society go there and remove the wires and the bulbs,” he said.
He added that even though they needed street lights along the main road from Fijai Junction to the emergency unit up through Nkontompo to the hospital, it was a capital-intensive project, which the hospital could not undertake alone and urged the metropolitan authorities to live up to their responsibilities.