Apam Catholic Hospital

Background

Serving as a referral hospital for the various health centres and maternity homes in the Gomoa District it offers services in medical, surgical, as well as trauma and specialised service in obstetrics and gynaecology.

The hospital has a bed complement of 105 and is located in Apam, the administrative capital of Gomoa within the twelve decentralised districts of the Central Region. It serves a population of 204,000 from 197 communities within a radius of 1,033 square kilometres.

It is accessible by a good road 8km off at Ankamu on the Accra-Mankessim-Cape Coast trunk road – a notable accident prone area. The Mfantsiman District borders to the West, Ajumako/Enyan    and Asikuma, Odoben, Brakwa District to the North, Awutu Effutu/Senya District to the East and the Gulf of Guinea to the South.

The District

The hospital is located within two (2) distinct communities – a coastal fishing community stretching to Gomoa Nyanyano and a farming community in the hinterland also stretching to the boundaries of the Agona District at Gomoa Aboso.

Though there are some light industries, such as salt, stone quarries, and brick and tile, these are small scale activities and only attract a small percentage of the population.

Hence the main occupation of the inhabitants is fishing and farming, which is mostly on subsistence level. The educated youth and a greater population thus migrate to the urban centres in search of "white collar jobs" which are non-existent. Despite these some of the inhabitants have taken to commercial activities as way of earning a living.

Estimating, 15% of the population work within the public and civil service and that, the vast majority of the population live below the poverty line (approximately 60%). The district has therefore been designated within the Ghana Living Standards Documents as a deprived zone in addition to some communities within the three (3) Northern zones in Ghana. This is largely accounting for the inability of people to meet their full cost of health care. However, it is hoped that with the introduction of the National Health Insurance Scheme members would pool risks to meet their health needs.

The general infrastructure of the area is quite good. Apart from some communities that are inaccessible by good road network, facilities such as use of cellular phones, electricity and water supply are present. The issue of water though present, is erratic and often perennial, accounting for a high proportion of water borne diseases in the district and morbidity. Sanitation, however, in the area is a problem. Despite numerous health educations, behavioural change has woefully been insignificant. The absence of proper incinerators, dumping sites and toilet facilities in most households largely account for this. Emanating from this are the main health problems such as diarrhoea diseases, anaemia complication mostly in children, malnutrition, high incidence of typhoid, teenage pregnancy, skin diseases and ulcers, and high infant mortality rate.