Incessant copper pipes theft affecting Korle Bu oxygen plants

Healthcare delivery at the nation’s premier hospital, the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, is being hampered by the constant theft of essential medical equipment, including copper pipes that supply oxygen from the oxygen plants of the hospital to the wards.

The hospital said the pipes were constantly cut and the copper pipes stolen and sold as scrap and the management had to spend money to replace them.

The hospital management has consequently advised the public to report those who sell such things to them as scraps because it could affect them in the future when they also need such services.

“If their mother is on the ventilator, or they are on the ventilator, and somebody stole something that is providing life-saving therapy to them, the results are going to be disastrous,” the acting Chief Executive Officer of the hospital, Dr Frank Owusu-Sekyere warned.

Dr Owusu-Sekyere disclosed this to media personnel during a tour to the project sites of the hospital with the hospital’s management team to ascertain the progress of work on those projects.

Accompanied by some departmental heads, the acting CEO and the team visited Ward E, an elective ward for gynae cases; Ward H, which is the male ward for accident victims and the site where the reconstruction of a wall of the Korle Bu SSNIT Flat residential area was ongoing.

The reconstruction of the wall, which broke down in 2003, was one of the measures the KBTH was putting in place to secure the hospital’s perimeters so that people would find it difficult to enter to steal medical equipment, including the copper pipes and also protect their staff.

Refitting cost

Lamenting the effect the stealing of those copper pipes could have on the lives of patients who were on oxygen,  Dr Owusu Sekyere said: “Imagine you are on oxygen, thinking that you are receiving oxygen through the pipe and then somebody goes to cut it.”

He said the hospital paid so much money refitting the stolen copper pipes pointing out that currently, it cost about GH¢400,000 to refix one.

“This is something that somebody might have taken to go and sell for GH¢50.

So, these are the things that we think people must be aware of. Even those that are buying these copper pipes from the hospitals should be able to report, because it can affect them. 

He said to address the issue, the hospital was in the advance stages of procuring the services of private security.

Though the stealing of the copper pipes poses a challenge, Dr Owusu-Sekyere said the hospital had enough oxygen to supply to all the wards in the hospital, explaining that there were two oxygen plants - one supplied oxygen to the medical block and the other to the rest of the hospital.

Additionally, he said for wards that had not been connected to the oxygen pipes, they had enough oxygen cylinders which were filled and connected to manifolds at the wards to supply oxygen when needed.

Elevators

The acting KBTH CEO also gave an update on the elevators, stating that the frequent breakdowns had ceased because the hospital had engaged a contractor who was on standby to resolve any issues when there was a hitch.

He announced plans by the hospital to procure three new elevators to support the existing ones in the hospital.

The three elevators, which will be fixed at the surgical, medical and maternity blocks of the hospital, are expected to permanently resolve the issues with malfunctioning lifts and also facilitate the movement of patients, especially those who undergo surgical operations from one floor of the hospital to the other.

He said the funds being used to procure the elevators were from donations from people to the hospital.

He said the manufacturers had informed the hospital that it would take them three months to get the specifications of the elevators made, another five weeks to get them to the country and two more weeks to install them.