Chamber of Mines installs generator for Maamobi Hospital

The Ghana Chamber of Mines (GCM) has presented an installed 100KVA generator to the Maamobi General Hospital.

The GH¢147,000-power system is to address the power needs of the facility.

The donation, the chamber said, was among a series of public-spirited activities being pursued to support selected health facilities across the country to improve the wellbeing of members of the public.

The management of the hospital said the facility had faced erratic power supply over the years and that it had had to rely on rechargeable lights at night.

At a ceremony to hand over the generator, the President of the chamber, Mr Eric Asubonteng, said the GCM recognised the need for health professionals to have the necessary logistics to complement the human skills to deliver quality health care.

“The worst situation for any healthcare professional is to feel helpless when your skills alone are not enough to save lives,” Mr Asubonteng said.

The chamber, he said, would pay for the routine servicing of the generator for the first year at an estimated cost of GH¢45,000.

Preventing mortalities

“Our expectation is that this generator will ensure an efficient service delivery at the maternity and the neonatal intensive care units especially,” Mr Asubonteng said.

He commended the management of the hospital for working within various constraints to improve healthcare delivery within the Ayawaso East Municipality.

He added that the chamber could continue to lend support to various national causes, with some GH¢11.5 million ($2 million) expended in support of testing and treatment of COVID-19 cases at the height of the pandemic in the country in 2020.

Such corporate social investment initiatives, he stressed, were tied to the corporate strategies of the respective members of the chamber by way of a “people first” approach.

Hospital Management

The Medical Superintendent of the Maamobi hospital, Dr Anfu Okine, indicated that the hospital had gone through turbulent times with regard to unstable power supply, saying it affected service delivery, particularly at the maternity and neonatal intensive care units, as well as the laboratory.

“It will interest you to know that lights in the area often go off at 10 p.m. and only come on the next day,” she said.

She said although the facility had specialists, medical equipment and enough beds, management was often compelled to refer some cases because of power outages.

“The days of staff using rechargeable lamps and mobile phone torchlights whenever the national grid goes off and our old obsolete generator is unable to function are over,” Dr Okine stated.

The Deputy Greater Accra Regional Director of Health, Dr Lucio Dery, expressed gratitude to the chamber for the gesture, saying it would aid the universal health coverage agenda.

He urged the chamber to maintain its relationship with the hospital.