Korle Bu Hospital deserves fitting facelift

When the administration of Sir Gordon Guggisberg, the then Governor of the Gold Coast, established the Korle Bu Hospital on October 9, 1923, it was to serve as a general hospital to address the health needs of the indigenous people.

The hospital then had a bed capacity of 200. However, population growth and the proven efficacy of hospital-based treatment caused a rise in hospital attendance at Korle Bu.

By 1953, demand for the hospital's services had gone so high that the government was compelled to set up a task force to study the situation and make recommendations for the expansion of the hospital.

The government accepted and implemented the recommendations of the task force, which resulted in the construction of new structures, such as the Maternity, the Medical, the Surgical and Child Health blocks. This increased the hospital's bed capacity to 1,200.

Korle Bu gained teaching hospital status in 1962 when the University of Ghana Medical School (UGMS) was established for the training of medical doctors not only from Ghana but other parts of  Africa.

The hospital currently has a bed capacity of 2,000 and serves as the biggest national referral centre and the third largest hospital in Africa.

However, over the years, instead of the hospital improving its infrastructure along with its growing significance in the provision of health care and medical tuition and training, it has kept deteriorating, to the extent that Korle Bu is now a pale shadow of itself.

The absence of a culture of maintenance, which has been the bane of our dear country, has adversely affected the fortunes of an international landmark institution such as the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.

But, thankfully, news of the launch of an endowment fund to expand infrastructure at the facility and procure vital equipment to enhance healthcare delivery is very welcoming.

If the hospital is to maintain its status as the third largest in Africa or even get to the top of the list, then such a proactive venture in the launch of an endowment fund must be embraced and supported by all.

Currently, the hospital records an average daily attendance of 1,500 patients at its Out-Patients Department (OPD), out of which 250 are admitted daily for further management.

Without doubt, the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital stands as a crucial player in the healthcare delivery system of the country and that demands that the highest attention in terms of maintenance, the provision of requisite and adequate equipment and the appropriate motivation for staff of the hospital are ensured.

The Daily Graphic, therefore, considers it heartwarming that three clinics of the hospital, namely, the urology surgical, general surgery and the neurosurgical, which were closed down for re-tooling have been reopened to offer enhanced services.

We believe that our progress as a nation does not lie only in the putting up of new infrastructure but also ensuring that the old ones that we have are properly maintained to serve the purposes that they were meant for.

The lack of maintenance must give way to a new and improved attitude by which maintenance becomes a norm rather than an aberration.