The Upper West Regional Health Directorate says it is deploying biomedical engineers to assess and repair damaged theatre lamps at the Wa West District Hospital.

This comes after Doctors in Wa West use phone torches to perform surgeries two years after theatre lamps broke down.

According to Dr Benjamin Ameyuori, the Medical Superintendent of the Wa West District Hospital, the situation is impeding work at the theatre in Wechiau.

“It is really affecting service because the lamp is the second eye for both the nurses and doctors when we are doing an operation,” he explained.

But commenting on the situation, the Upper West Regional Health Director Dr Damien Punguyiri says he is unaware of the situation.

The Medical Superintendent added that he is hearing of the challenge for the first time on JoyNews.

He, however, stated that experts will be tasked to repair the broken theatre lamps.

“Will will dispatch our biomedical engineers to the hospital to assess if it is indeed broken down and whether they can work on it because they have been working on hospital equipment across other hospitals.

“So if they can work on it then simple if they cannot, then we know what to do,” he told Samuel Kojo Brace on Joy News Desk on Wednesday.

Officials at the health facility told JoyNews’ correspondent Rafiq Salam that the development has significantly affected healthcare delivery at the facility.

The medical practitioner recounted an incident where his team needed to, once again, improvise during a surgery performed on a man with Gastric Perforation, a full-thickness injury of the wall of the organ the stomach.

“And we needed to close the hole to avoid the contents from the stomach from leaking out into the entire cavity. And I had to use two [mobile phone] lights one on one side and another one, to be able to see clearly and continue with the procedure,” Dr Benjamin Ameyuori said.

The healthcare officers say they have demonstrated their commitment to saving lives, however, very little can be achieved without the support.