By Lydia Kukua Asamoah, GNA
Accra, Oct 10, GNA – First
Lady Mrs Rebecca Akufo-Addo, on Thursday commissioned the refurbished 89-year
old Osu Government Maternity Home, giving it a new face-lift to continue to
provide safe delivery of mothers and the safety of their new-borns.
The facility was
refurbished and renovated by the Rebecca Foundation, under its Community Health
Outreach Initiative, with support from the Chinese Embassy.
The old facility,
said to be initiated by the Basel Missionaries of the Presbyterian Church, who
also gave the land for the facility, long before Ghana gained independence, now
serve more than 15,000 residents from Osu, La, Teshie, Dansoman and other
areas.
Mrs Akufo-Addo said
as a native of Osu, she considered the safety of women especially, during the
period of child delivery dear to her heart and so she would not like to lose
one of her “own” in Osu during child birth.
She described the
home as playing a significant role in routine emergency intervention in its 89
years of existence, providing safe maternal health care for the people of Osu
and its environs.
“All these years the
facility has seen its wear and tear without any major works. It is in this vein
that I am elated to today formally commission the newly refurbished Osu
Maternity Home fitted with ultra-modern equipment to ensure safe delivery of
our mothers and safety of our new-borns”, she noted.
The First Lady
indicated that although Ghana’s maternal and infant mortality ratio decreased
in recent years, there was the need to still do better.
She said the Rebecca
Foundation was therefore, committed to partner in Ghana’s agenda to reduce “our
maternal and infant morbidity and mortality rate”.
She said since 2017,
the Foundation pursued that agenda with a great sense of duty by building,
renovating and equipping facilities all over the country.
She urged the
hospital staff to ensure that they maintained the facility for it to continue
to provide the needed services to the people.
Mr Shi Ting Wang, the
Chinese Ambassador, said China as a good friend to Ghana and the biggest
investor, was happy to support the country in her development efforts.
He said as China
marked its 70th anniversary of the founding of that country, they
would never forget their friends from developing countries, including Ghana.
He said China would
therefore, continue to partner Ghana, as the field of public health was an
important part of China-Africa Cooperation Forum.
He said both China
and Ghana had broad prospects for cooperation in the field of health, and so
his country would work together with Ghana to promote the latter’s health care
industry to a new level that would benefit local people and make Ghanaians live
healthier and happier lives.
Dr Charity Sarpong,
the Greater Accra Regional Director of Health, Ghana Health Service, commended
the First Lady, for showing much compassion towards mothers and children, and
towards their health care.
She said the GHS was
grateful to Mrs Akufo-Addo for her numerous support towards the health care
sector since she became the First Lady and gave the assurance that the Service
would ensure the facility was properly maintained to serve the good people of
Osu and its environs.
As part of the
renovation, the Home was fully rewired to solve a long standing challenge of
power leakages, low load capacity and the danger of old exposed cables. Led
lights, inverter split air-conditioning units were used all round the building
to reduce the power consumption.
Also, a new delivery
theatre was added to the home, increasing the capacity from one functional
delivery bed to four.
Two new antenatal
focus consulting rooms were added, bringing the total number to three
Again, the
interconnecting corridors and access areas were fitted with disability rumps to
make the home disability friendly, while a new placenta pit was installed for
hygienic disposal of placenta.
The lying-in–ward was
fully refurbished with new hospital beds, bed side tables and new glass access
doors, which allow for better monitoring of expecting mothers by health
workers, as well as a new sterilisation room and nurses room created to
ameliorate working conditions for nurses.
The home, now has a
refurbished clinical laboratory, pharmacy and office spaces for staff.
The Rebecca
Foundation earlier provided a new emergency ambulance to the home to enable
quick referral cases and emergencies.
GNA
