The labour ward of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) is refusing admissions to emergency cases at the labour ward as the department's oxygen plant has developed a fault over the weekend.  

The plant is currently undergoing repairs but currently can only adequately cater for women with regular pregnancies.

According to the hospital's PRO, Mustapha Salifu told Joy News' Jennifer Akuamoah that the Hospital has also reduced the number of patients it admits as well as begun referring emergency cases to other medical facilities. 

Mr Salifu said the hospital took the decision to stop accepting emergency cases because they didn't want to endanger their patients with peculiar circumstances. 

"We needed to scale back operations so that we do not endanger the lives of our patients because we need oxygen in order to take care of patients in the theatre," he said. 

He said they need oxygen in the labour ward to assist the patients to deliver.

Oxygen therapy is the administration of oxygen as a medical intervention, which can be for a variety of purposes in both chronic and acute patient care.  

Oxygen therapy is used when low blood oxygen is present. Oxygen may be administered in various ways from a nasal cannula to hyperbaric oxygen inside a closed chamber.

According to Mr Salifu, if they don't have oxygen on a regular basis then they will be knowingly endangering the lives of patients if the Hospital goes ahead and admit them.

"And yet we do not have this critical component to see them that is why we started asking patients to go to other facilities within the metropolis," he said.