Ghana 2026

Part 2: 1st week of placement

Started the day with some nutella-like spread on some bread – it was very nutty. Then ready for the day we were picked up by our administrator in a taxi to go to the hospital. Things then moved very slowly.

We spent most of the day waiting to be told or shown something. We were never given a proper tour of the hospital. Our day went like this:

• Waiting for the administrator
• Filling out some forms
• Waiting in the conference room for the clinical coordinator
• Watching some student presentations that the clinical coordinator was assessing (waiting for him to be ready to show us where to go)
• Waiting in the paeds ward for him to finish his meeting
• Waiting upstairs for the administrator
• Going on a tour to some of the wards by the clinical coordinator (which was actually so he could tell them they needed to use the computer system to admit patients)
• Having a discussion about malaria with the clinical coordinator
• Lunch at the canteen
• Then walked home

I have been coping better with the heat. Last night I actually found it too cold with the air conditioning on. However, walking back from the hospital was even more uncomfortable with the sweatiness.

It was interesting to see how the hospital differed from the ones I’d been to in the UK.

Paeds ward:

• 19 beds with no curtains between.
• Beds were rusty – most had sheets but in other wards some patients were directly on the mattress
• Oxygen was available for about every 2nd patient
• Notes were in English with the same acronyms and layout as the UK but most patients (I saw today) spoke Twi
• Doctors wore formal clothing with labcoats and nurses wore scrubs
• There were about 10 nurses for that ward
• No air conditioning, but fans on the ceiling
• On this ward they mostly see malaria, sickle cell disease and bronchopneumonia

For lunch we had jollof rice in the hospital canteen. The gentleman serving us was lovely and I have had jollof rice in the UK but it was much spicier here.

Tuesday:

We had been given the number of the taxi driver who drove us up yesterday to call this morning but he did not answer. We ended up trying to walk the shortcut instead and this was a much nicer walk. It was away from the busy roads and took us just under 20 minutes.

Our second day in the hospital was in obs & gynae. This ward was much bigger than paeds. We didnt go into the labour ward but they had a gynae bay ( 10 beds), antenatal (12 beds and then 4 beds), postnatal bays ( about 10 beds and another 10 bed bay). The patients in this ward had curtains but the rest was very similar to the paeds ward.

On the ward round there were lots of us (around 9) trying to fit between beds to see patients. The mix of ceiling fans and staff speaking very quietly meant we were unable to hear a lot of what was happening but we did also get quizzed by one of the doctors.

The presentations on this ward seemed to be similar to the UK; ectopic pregnancy, fibroids, pre-eclampsia, gestational diabetes etc

Because of the heat the ward round had felt very long. Around 12:30 it ended and we went for lunch at the same place as yesterday. The gentleman working there had made some “noodles” specifically for us.

Above are the “noodles” which was actually a mix of carrot, pepper, peas, beans, onion, various pasta and ?ketchup. It was a weird mix and only nice whilst I was still hungry.

We had decided to do shopping in 2 batches, some on the walk back and water/heavier items on another walk out. We had managed to find a small indoor shop right near our street selling a variety of things, which was great. However, it had started to rain and we got caught in the middle of a heavy downpour.

Wednesday:

We spent today on the obs & gynae ward again but split up to join the separate ward rounds today. I was in gynae. The ward round was much better today because it was just the doctor, nurse and me so I understood more of what was happening. Although, most of our conversations were more on the differences between the UK and Ghana

We walked back through the market today as it was on. There were so many stalls and people were very friendly saying hello/asking whether we wanted to buy what they were selling. We got some garlic and onion and also needed some bread. We asked one gentleman where it was and he took us back and down by the hospital to find it. We were a little sceptical on whether he knew what we were asking for because we had walked a fair way and previously he had confused bread with plantain and had asked if we wanted coffee as well. However, we found it. This time it was T-bread which was much more like English bread (not sweet like butter bread).

On coming back to the house (already pretty drenched in sweat) we found we couldn’t open the gate. The lock was stuck and we were locked outside. The administrator who had shown us in was at work and said he would call someone, but based on our experiences so far that could’ve meant in an hour or more.

Luckily a gentleman passing by stopped to help us and managed to get the gate open with lots of moving the gate back and forth. So we only ended up waiting about 50 minutes outside in the heat with no shade haha.

Thursday:

We went to try theatres this morning and discovered it was all air conditioned! So, after being allowed into the theatre (one of 2) we were able to enjoy the cool air. However, this had also come with mosquitoes – eek! Luckily we haven’t encountered many mosquitoes since Accra airport and since being in Nsawam I haven’t spotted any until today.

The surgeries we saw today were 3 c-sections and one surgical debridement (cleaning out a gunshot wound). I was also able to scrub into the last c-section which was fun! Here they wear wellies and an apron underneath their gown. They also have one normal sink for scrubbing in in an adjacent room.

Around 70% of births here are via spontaneous vaginal delivery and 30% via c-section. (Compared to 50:50 in the UK) They also don’t have a lot of anaesthetic doctors in Ghana so all the surgeries done here have anaesthetic nurses instead and the surgeries are less complicated than in Accra.

This evening we cooked our first batch of rice with a little jollof seasoning and veg. It was quite tasty.