Ghanaians love for prayer camps over hospitals alarming

Flawless reports point to the fact that inhabitants of Nkwanta South District in the northern part of Volta region have developed a penchant for visiting prayer camps to treat diseases.

The paper was reliably informed by its sorties that greater majority of inhabitants instead of visiting hospitals for proper healthcare preferred to seek divine healing in order to be cured fully.

This practice, has unfortunately led to the death of a number of indigenes in the town most of whom suffered serious health implications, following the inability of the prayer camps to cure them of their ailments.

The Administrator of St. Joseph Hospital, Rev. Sister Lucy Dumenu, corroborated the story in a telephone interview with Today Newspaper.

She said: “Most patients in this town visit the hospital when they are at the point of death. They waste so much time at the prayer camps in the name of seeking divine healing.”

In this direction, Rev. Sister Lucy Dumenu, called on the inhabitants to avoid using prayer camps as medical centers and seek proper health care from the hospital whenever they fall sick.

She gave the assurance that her outfit had competent workers who are ready to sacrifice for the people as far as health care services are concerned.

Investigations by the paper further revealed that the indigenes spent so much time at the prayer camps to the extent that when their health conditions begin to deteriorate, they then rush to the St. Joseph Hospital for instant magical cure which does not exist.

This, the paper learned, has often created unnecessary congestion at the hospital since patients who could not be treated at the prayer camps tend to mount incessant pressure on nurses and doctors.

Checks established that the doctors and nurses at the St. Joseph Hospital are finding it extremely difficult to deal with the situation.

Top health officials at the hospital raised grave concerns and called for something to be done, as a matter of urgency, to curtail the problem.

For her part, the chief matron of the hospital, Rev. Sister Rose Sumah, cited the lack of health facilities as one of its major challenges.

“Lack of accommodation for staff, low number of health attendants, lack of health equipment among others are some of the major challenges we are facing here at St. Joseph Hospital,” she disclosed.

She therefore appealed to philanthropists, individuals, non-governmental organisations, and corporate Ghana to come to the aid of the hospital to curb this syndrome of seeking divine healing at prayer camps.