By Kodjo
Adams, GNA
Accra, July 20, GNA – As part of activities to
mark the 20th anniversary of MTN Ghana, the management has
constructed and handed over a GH¢4.2 million ultra-modern Maternity Block to
authorities of the Tema General Hospital.
The 40-bed Maternity Block comprises a 20-bed
first stage ward, and another 20-bed lying in ward with one theatre.
The facility also has a seven-bed monitoring
and recovery ward, nurses’ station and changing rooms, sluice rooms, pantry and
store, two consultation rooms, two doctors’ offices and restrooms, nurses’
office and restroom.
The edifice comes with equipment including
anaesthesia machine, diathermy machine, incubator, baby cot, patient monitors,
infusion pump, and radiant warmer.
Mr Selorm Adadevoh, the Chief Executive
Officer, MTN Ghana, speaking at the commissioning of the facility, said the
project was necessitated by a news item which highlighted the struggle faced by
the Hospital to raise funds to complete its maternity ward.
He said MTN Ghana Foundation had invested over
13 million dollars in building maternity blocks, school blocks, libraries and
Information Communication Technology Centres around the country in the last 10
years.
In all, MTN Ghana Foundation has invested
$4million in 52 health projects in the country and impacted about 1.2 million
lives.
He said the Foundation had touched four
million lives directly and indirectly with 142 projects in education, health
and economic empowerment.
Mr Adadevoh said the facility was expected to
help relieve the pressure on existing facilities at the Hospital, as a result
of the increasing population.
The project, he said, would serve the growing
health needs of the over 12,000 pregnant women who visited the Hospital
annually for deliveries.
He was optimistic that the facility would
improve maternal and neonatal health in Tema and its environs and as well
reduce the country’s maternal mortality rate which remained high.
Professor Plange Rhule, the Vice chairman of
MTN Foundation Board, said one of the major challenges affecting the country’s
healthcare delivery was its infrastructural deficit.
According to him, report indicated that Ghana
did not meet the 2015 Millennium Development Goals four and five, aimed at
reducing child and maternal mortality.
The report explained that one of the reasons
to the failure was the quality of health care delivery.
He said to ensure an effective management of
the facility, management together with the authorities of the Hospital would
create a maintenance fund and signed a maintenance agreement with suppliers
after the expiration of the 12 month warranty period.
Madam Tina Mensah, the Deputy Minister of
Health, commended MTN Ghana for the gesture and appealed to corporate
organisations to emulate MTN Ghana Foundation and support other hospitals to
improve health delivery.
Dr Kwabena Opoku-Adusei, Medical Director,
Tema General Hospital, commended the Foundation for the support, in that the
facility would cater for the increasing number of patients in the Hospital.
She said government would continue to support
any activities to improve maternal mortality in the country.
He said the Tema General Hospital was the
third highest in the country, adding that the Hospital in 2017 delivered over
7,000 babies with over 22,261 pregnant women who visited the hospital in the
same year.
GNA