HEALTH STORIES

The Maternity Block of the Achimota Hospital has received theatre equipment worth about GH¢ 400,000 to help improve maternal health care services at the facility.

The equipment was jointly procured with funding from the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Focus Region Health Project (FRHP), a four-year 40 million dollar project funded by the US government in the year 2009; and the hospital’s internally generated funds.

It is to help in the provision of emergency obstetric care and reduce referral of pregnant women to other health facilities.

They include operating tables, blood pressure monitors, anaesthesia machines, standing BP apparatus, radiant heat for babies, theatre lights, electrosurgical machines, drip stands, and an autoclave.

The Medical Superintendent of the Achimota Hospital, Dr. Mark Aglobitse, thanked the USAID, coordinators of the FRHP, and the hospital’s management and staff for the vision, support, selflessness, and hard work to procure the items.

He revealed that after conceiving the idea of increasing access to patients that needed maternal health services in its catchment area in the year 2005, the hospital had to cut down on its internal expenses in order to mobilise funds to commence the project.

He indicated that management further embarked on a financial mobilization drive, which yielded a substantial amount for the construction of the modern maternity block that has been operational since 2011.

He said the modern maternity theatre, which was well furnished, would help reduce the challenges of providing emergency obstetrics and gynecology care for patients in the catchment area.

Dr. Aglobitse said referrals to other hospitals including Ridge, 37 Military, and Korle-Bu Teaching hospitals could now be handled by the hospital.

He said the hospital was also collaborating with the FRHP in the area of environmental sanitation and thanked the FRHP for supporting the construction of a GHȼ 40,000 ultra-modern incinerator that could take all kinds of waste generated by the hospital.

The Chief of Party at FRHP, Dr. Edward Bonku, said the collaboration was to improve Ghana’s health system and major problems like nutrition, maternal, child rehabilitation programmes as well as malaria and HIV/AIDS.

He noted that through this and other interventions, malaria, HIV and AIDS prevalence had systematically been reduced in the country.

He said to ensure focus and results, the project dealt with three major regions; Greater Accra, Central and Western regions, and it was hopeful to make a greater impact on efforts to reduce maternal mortality in its final year to attain the Millennium Development Goals.

The Deputy Director for Clinical Care at the Ghana Health Service, Mrs. Sara Amissah-Bamfo, expressed appreciation for the partnership that had resulted in the construction and furnishing of the maternity block and theatre for the hospital.

 She said the intervention would not only improve maternal health care services in the catchments area but also help reduce the pressure on facilities of existing hospitals in the region.

She urged management and staff of the Achimota Hospital to observe a high sense of maintenance culture to ensure that the equipment and the facility served the full purpose.