US$7m hospital equipment for B/A regional hospital

The Ministry of Health has provided the Brong Ahafo Regional Hospital in Sunyani with hospital equipment worth US$ 7 million to reactivate activities at the hospital.

They included assorted theatre equipment to reactivate about 11 theatres in the hospital.

The ministry has also provided assorted medical equipment valued  at $5 million to most of the district hospitals in the region to improve upon health delivery in the communities.

The Minister of Health, Ms Sherry Ayittey, announced this at a stakeholders’ meeting in Sunyani as part of her three-day working visit to the Brong Ahafo Region.

Maternity/children’s blocks.

She further announced that the ministry planned to construct  new and well-equipped maternity and children’s blocks at the regional hospital to help reduce maternal and child mortality cases.

Ms Ayittey said a team of experts would be sent to the hospital to inspect the maternity and children’s blocks to  design new blocks and also put up a housing facility for staff of the hospital.

New hospitals

Ms Ayittey said more hospitals and Community-Based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compounds would be constructed, particularly in the new districts, to help improve upon health delivery in the districts, since such facilities served the  disadvantaged in the communities.

She added that the new hospitals to be constructed would include accommodation for doctors, nurses and allied health personnel.

Ms Ayittey, therefore, called on the municipal and district assemblies, as well as the traditional authorities, to take ownership of the community health centres and the CHPS compounds to ensure proper healthcare delivery in the communities.

The health minister also called on the traditional authorities to help with public advocacy to reduce maternal and child mortality rates.

“It is our total commitment that every Ghanaian, wherever you are, must have access to quality health care services,” she said.

Mental health

Ms Ayittey said the Pantang Hospital would be expanded, while a new mental hospital would be constructed in the middle belt of the country and the Northern Region to help spread mental healthcare facilities  to all parts of the country.

She said the Mental Health Act had been passed while the Mental Health Board had been inaugurated, and added that every health facility in the country must have a mental health unit.

The Deputy Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, Mr Justice Samuel Adjeim, said Sunyani had over the years stood out as the cleanest in terms of sanitation in the country.

He said the serene environment, coupled with the hospitality of the people as well as the peace in the city, positioned it as an important destination for socio-economic activities in the country.

The Brong Ahafo Regional Director of Health Services, Dr Timothy Letsa, said the region had been demarcated into 617 CHPS zones out of which 100 had CHPS compounds.

He said maternal mortality reduced from 109 in 2012 to 95 in 2013.