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Kwaku Ofori-Asiamah (3rd from right), Transport Minister, being assisted by dignitaries, including Kwaku Agyemang-Manu (3rd from left), Health Minister, to cut the anniversary cake. Picture: DELLA RUSSEL OCLOO
Kwaku Ofori-Asiamah (3rd from right), Transport Minister, being assisted by dignitaries, including Kwaku Agyemang-Manu (3rd from left), Health Minister, to cut the anniversary cake. Picture: DELLA RUSSEL OCLOO

Maritime Hospital urged to invest in research and training

The Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyemang-Manu, has urged the International Maritime Hospital (IMaH) to invest in training and research to set the facility to the standard of a teaching hospital.

Speaking at an event to mark the fifth anniversary of the hospital in Tema last Tuesday, Mr Agyemang-Manu was of the view that the government’s quest to make the country a hub for medical tourism in West Africa required facilities such as IMaH to drive the journey.

The celebration was on the theme, “Five Years of Excellent Healthcare Poised on Mandate Delivery.”

The 130-bed capacity hospital built by the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority in 2016 at the cost of $23 million, from the authority’s internally generated funds (IGF), serves as a specialised hospital providing health care to people in the maritime sector and the general public.

It became operational in September 2017 and provides an array of services, including urology interventional cardiology, nephology and renal dialysis.

The minister indicated that an alignment of the country’s health policy with the sustainable development goal (SDG) 3.8 was aimed at achieving universal health coverage.

Recruitment

Mr Agyemang-Manu urged the management of the hospital to tread cautiously when recruiting and retaining staff for the facility.

“When we started recruiting specialists and consultants for the University of Ghana Medical Centre (UGMC), the majority of the applicants were coming from the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital so we had to halt the process because we couldn’t collapse Korle Bu for UGMC which had what many may consider as better salaries than other facilities,” he said.

Maintenance culture

The Minister of Transport, Kwaku Ofori-Asiamah, in his remarks, bemoaned the poor maintenance culture in the country and appealed to the management of the hospital to endeavour to institute a maintenance regime that would ensure that the facility would live beyond generations.

“Health infrastructure is an essential component of health delivery in the attainment of universal health goals and it is for this reason the government will continue to partner corporate Ghana to prioritise health service delivery across the country in furtherance to ensuring a healthy nation,” he said.

Synergy

The Chairman of the GPHA Board, Isaac Osei, called for synergy in the operations of the hospital and the GPHA Clinic which had been running as a separate body under the authority’s operations.

The Director General of the GPHA, Michael Luguje, for his part, said that the values generated by the authority’s clinic brought about the need for the building of a bigger facility.

The CEO of IMaH, Dr Akwasi Achampong, in his welcome address, said the facility had seen a significant increase in its scope of services from eight specialised services to 22, including cardiac catheterisation.

The Tema Manklalo, Nii Adjetey Agbo, who chaired the occasion, called on the management of the hospital to accept the National Health Insurance to allow residents within the vulnerable communities in Tema to equally access quality health care at the facility.

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