The Medical Superintendent of the Saltpond Government Hospital, Dr Derrick Akyeampong Bonsu has appealed to the Ministry of Health to relocate the health facility to make room for expansion.
Dr Bonsu said the hospital which was build in 1920 by the colonial government for the Navy, had become too small for the large number of people who use the facility.
Addressing an annual performance review meeting of the hospital at Saltpond, the Medical Superintendent said the facility's infrastructures were deteriorating at a very fast rate due to its closeness to the Gulf of Guinea.
He said the facility had become too small and had no space for development, and that the departments were squeezed into rooms, which could not be described as offices.
Dr Bonsu said despite the challenges confronting the facility, the staff performed creditably in 2009.
He said the Out Patient Department (OPD) recorded 46,082 attendances in 2009 as against 41,918 in 2008.
In the year under review, he said, admissions increased slightly from 6,407 in 2008 to 6,434.
Thirty-two thousand, one hundred and eighty-five (32,185) Health Insurance Card bearers attended the facility as against 29,661 in 2008 and that death rates dropped from 278 in 2008 to 221 in the year under review.
Thirty-five (35) infants died as compared to 53 in 2008.
The medical superintendent said 8,747 cases of malaria were recorded in the year to top the 10 major cases of ailments reported at the facility.
He said anaemia and malaria accounted for the 57 per cent of total deaths in 2009 whilst for the first time HIV/AIDS accounted for 21 per cent of total deaths.
Dr Bonsu said the hospital had been adjudged the best promoter in the Kangaroo Mother care, a concept imported from South Africa, which urges mothers carry their babies on their front instead of at the back.
He said the facility conducted 466 operations successfully without any death.
Mr Frempong Hayford, Hospital Administrator said the facility renovated some of the departments, including the OPD, Laboratory, Female ward, Kids ward and Accident and Emergency wards from its own resources.
He mentioned inadequate staff, undue delay of reimbursement of bills from the National health Insurance scheme, inadequate accommodation, as some of the challenges the hospital was grappling with.
Mr Samuel Gyampo, who represented the Regional Director of Health, commended the facility for its prompt submission of reports and also for judicious management of its resources.
Nana Ataapim Kweenu VIII, Mankrado of the Nkusukum Traditional Area, who presided over the meeting, commended the staff for performing creditably, despite the challenges facing them.