Minister lauds 'game changing' GNPC after $1 million Korle-Bu donation
The Deputy Minister for Health, Dr Victor Bampoe, has described the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) and its CEO, Mr Alex Mould, as game changers.
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Dr Bampoe said this on Thursday when the GNPC presented the Burns Centre of the Korle-Bu Teaching with $1 million (GHS3.8 million) to facilitate the development of the Centre’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
The ICU, when completed, will be the first of its kind in West Africa, and will help increase the survival rate of burns patients from the current 40% to 80%.
Expressing gratitude to the GNPC for its gesture, Dr Bampoe said, “Mr Alex Mould is a game changing person and the team at GNPC is also game changing.”
He said when Ghana was threatened by the Ebola epidemic last year, the GNPC was one of the few organisations that gave the Ministry of Health and Ghana Health Service funding.
“They’ve demonstrated that they take their corporate social responsibility seriously,” he said.
The Deputy Minister also lauded the Director of the Reconstructive Plastic Surgery and Burns Unit, Dr Opoku Ware Ampomah, for what he said was his hard work in securing the $1 million dollar funding from GNPC.
He said since the government could not solve all the problems in the health sector alone, support from organisations like GNPC was critical to improving healthcare delivery in the country.
GNPC CEO, Mr Alex Mould, who presented the cheque, said his outfit had stepped forward to support the Burns centre because "the world-class team" there needed "a world-class facility".
He said after the June 3 fire disaster at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra, in which over 100 people died, the GNPC resolved to assist the Burns Centre to upgrade its capacity.
Mr Mould said GNPC was ready to assist the Centre further to improve its teaching facilities in line with international standards, adding that the donation was a demonstration of the GNPC's commitment to improving healthcare in the country.
The Director of the Reconstructive Plastic Surgery and Burns Unit, Dr Opoku Ware Ampomah, who received the cheque on behalf of the Centre, said by the donation, the GNPC had lived up to its motto: Empowering Dreams.
According to Mr Ampomah, the construction of the ultra-modern Burns Centre began in 2006 but had stalled for many years.
He said a lot of patients died just because they could not get access to ICU facilities.
“Many of the deaths were avoidable and the images are still fresh in my mind,” he said.
Expressing gratitude to the GNPC, Dr Ampomah said the company’s support would enable the Centre resolve some of their current challenges.
“We salute this gesture by GNPC,” he said.
The ICU will form a component of an $8 million ultra-modern Burns Centre, which will also have facilities such as, High Dependency Unit (HDP), Laboratory, Physiotherapy gym, leg ulcer clinic, modern fully-equipped consulting rooms, and laundry and sterilization unit.
It will also boast state of the art theatres, amenity wards, conference rooms, modern IT infrastructure with telemedicine and teleconferencing facilities, offices, and modern medical records management system.