The Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) has recorded a significant drop in patients’ attendance in the first half of the year, due to measures taken to control the spread of COVID-19 at the facility.

The Chief Executive officer, Dr Oheneba Owusu-Danso, who said this explained that management had to institute deliberate stringent measures to restrict the movement of people and remove the fear among patients that they would be infected with the virus when they visited the Hospital.

Speaking at the opening of the mid-year performance review meeting of the Hospital in Kumasi, he said the Hospital recorded a complete downward trend in all clinical activities in all the directorates and units of the facility.

This, according to him, resulted in huge revenue losses while expenditures, especially on personal protective equipment increased significantly.

In the period under review, Dr Owusu-Danso said specialist Out- Patient Department (OPD) attendance recorded for 2020 was 90,330 cases as against 136,598 for the same period in 2019, thus, translating into a drop of 34.45 per cent.

 In-Patients admissions recorded in 2019 were 17,456 and 2020 record was 14,911, while emergency attendance and admissions also decreased by 11 percent.

Dr Owusu-Danso, however, said the hospital continued to make significant strides in equipment retooling and infrastructure upgrading with the support of the Board.

Notable among them were Electro Convulsive Therapy machine for the psychiatry unit, opening lamps, Cautery machine tips for the Eye Unit, HB electrophoresis machine for the Hematology Unit among others.

The abandoned maternity and children’s block is expected to be completed in 36 months

The Chief Executive said the COVID-19 pandemic was still in the country despite the decline in cases, and urged the public not to be complacent but continue to observe the safety protocols outlined by the Ministry of Health.