Korle Bu CEO calls for provision of hospices As part of health system
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Dr Daniel Asare, is calling for a long-term stay hospital plan within the health system to take care of patients with terminal illnesses such as stroke and cancer.
He said currently patients with such chronic diseases often did not receive the necessary care after being discharged, either because “their relatives are not available or they refuse to take the sick back home”.
Dr Asare said as part of the long-term plan, there was the need to establish a hospice at the hospital — a home that provides care for people who are terminally ill to address their physical, emotional, social and spiritual needs.
He made the call in an interview with the Daily Graphic after a non-governmental organisation (NGO), Global Outreach Consortium, had donated surgical and medical equipment worth GH¢500,000 to the hospital in Accra.
The items presented were provided with the support of the GCB Bank.
Challenges
Dr Asare said while the ‘“no-bed syndrome” at the hospital had been significantly addressed, the “acute environment at the hospital still prevented the hospital from accommodating persons with terminal illnesses”.
“I think the Ministry of Health has some plans to construct a hospice in Dodowa, but we think that Korle Bu can also have one,” he added.
Talking about challenges at the hospital, the CEO said most of the equipment in use were obsolete but the hospital could not replace them due to its low revenue.
He said some of the structures too needed refurbishment to make them safe and appropriate to provide quality care.
Dr Asare named them as the Maternity, the Children’s and the Surgical and Medical blocks, as well as the establishment of a trauma and orthopedic centre of excellence.
“We know that the government cannot do it alone and so we want to partner the private sector to put up these centres of excellence,” he said.
Donation
Touching on the donation made, he said the equipment had come in handy and thanked the group for the support, saying the items, which included a neurosurgical microscope, would help a great deal in conducting neurosurgical operations at the hospital.
Surgeries
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Global Outreach Consortium, Dr Priscilla Vandyah-Sey, said the donation was part of efforts to fulfill its core mandate of providing advanced health care for the underprivileged.
She said the objective for donating the items was to support the hospital to provide health care for the underprivileged.
Touching on the activities of the consortium, Dr Vandyah-Sey said it had carried out 18 outreaches across the country, in which about 3,000 people were screened, out of which1,200 needed surgery.
“So far we have been able to conduct surgeries for only 200, meaning we still have a backlog of 1,000 free surgeries. We are, therefore, still mobilising funds to proceed with the surgeries left,” she said.