Community Hospital Group on course to expand nationwide

As the first phase of the 24-hour service 100-bed capacity  Community Hospital, Kukurantumi, prepares to take off, the chiefs and people of the community and its environs are elated.

According to them, the easily accessible and quality health care would be offered by the facility to enhance their productive ventures and income generation.

The inaugural ceremony, scheduled for December 3, 2016,  which brings hospitals established by The Community Hospital Group (TCHG) in the Greater Accra and Eastern regions  to five, marks another milestone of translating the visions of its Chief Executive,  Mr Akwasi Acquah into reality.

To Mr Acquah, making quality health care delivery readily accessible and affordable to the ordinary Ghanaian is his vision.

He, therefore, believes in turning all challenges likely to confront him into stepping stones as he strives on.

It was the positive impact made at the mother hospital,  inaugurated at Ashongman on July 1, 2009, which reinforced his determination to venture into Akyem Oda, his hometown to establish the first baby  of the TCHG in that community on July 1, 2012.

TCH Group branches

At the moment, two other branches at Ashiaman and the Kaneshie Market are also bearing  fruits to signify that  the foundation of spreading quality, accessible and affordable hospitals across the country had already been laid.

December 3, 2016, will, therefore, add to the glory of Mr Acquah, the board and management of the TCHG when the Kukurantumi branch comes to life to provide a 24-hour health service  to the chiefs and people in the catchment area.

Funeral homes

Beside providing quality health care, the TCHG is also at the forefront of dignifying departed ones by establishing modern mortuaries to enable family members preserve their  bodies well enough before preparing a befitting burial for them.

So far, three of such mortuaries have been established at Akyem Oda, Nkwanta and Kukurantumi in the Eastern Region, as well as Ashiaman in the Greater Accra Region.

Concept of TCHG

Briefing the  Daily Graphic on the concept of nurturing the TCHG, Mr Acquah, said after serving as the Media Relations Manager of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) for about three years, he recognised that health care could be organised as a business.

“As the Media Relations Manager, I had the opportunity of visiting  many health care facilities in Ghana and realised how they were managed.

I also realised that many hospitals in Ghana are medically led, because only those with medical skills run such hospitals, making it difficult for them to manage the facilities more professionally. I also noted that if businessmen administered hospitals like they will do to any customer centred ventures, it will free the hands of doctors  from other responsibilities to enable them manage patients more successfully.

“Our doctors who are few in the system have been trained to manage patients in the consulting rooms, and so you tend to abuse them when you ask them to handle administrative issues.

“I, therefore, started reading about major hospitals in the US and UK and realised that hospitals were managed by businessmen, hence the need for me to venture into that industry to try my  hands on a medical facility,” he explained.

Encouragement

Encouraged by the concept of operating hospitals abroad, he  ventured into it and started developing the Community Hospital at Ashongman  and eventually  inaugurated it on July 1, 2009.

“The experience acquired in monitoring other hospitals  in Ghana as the Media Relations Manager of the NHIS allowed me to  fashion the Ashongman  Hospital as an  attractive and friendly  medical care centre  to  our clients ,“he stressed, adding, “I was very successful because the catchment areas, comprising  Ashongman, Kwabenya, Brekuso and  Pokuase,  among other towns, were not only densely populated, but also had no health care facility, so providing them with such a  friendly facility  appealed to them. This made us enjoy the patronage so well”.

Akyem Oda branch

To Mr Acquah, the positive impact at Ashomang  motivated him to move to Akyem Oda, “ where I transformed my private property into a 100-bed capacity modern hospital.

“I had a private property there, so I easily  converted it into a hospital with a 40-bed capacity before expanding it into a 100-bed capacity hospital, providing a 24-hour service to my people. That facility, which  is  people centred  and blessed with  a specialist gynaecologist, was inaugurated on July 1, 2012.

“Having enjoyed much successes in health care delivery”, he said, “the need to cater for the dead in a dignified manner also dawned on him, so he acquired an abandoned factory at Oda Nkwanta and converted it into a modern mortuary.

“I realised that the only mortuary in the area was at Oda Government Hospital, which had been in existence for so long, so I decided to establish  the  800-capacity Community Hospital Mortuary and Funeral Home at Oda Nkwanta  which was inaugurated on July 1, 2014.

He said being aware of the  congestion associated with preserving  bodies in some mortuaries,  family members started patronising the mortuaries because of the VIP services provided to put bodies in single compartments to keep them neat and well preserved.

Challenge by Ambassador Victor Smith

On how the Kukurantumi branch was established, Mr Acquah said during the inaugural ceremony of the Akyem Oda branch, Ambassador Smith  who was the then Eastern Regional Minister was invited  as the Guest of Honour, and impressed about the facility, “he invited us to build a similar facility in his hometown at Kukurantumi which we readily accepted.”

He, therefore, led us to the chiefs and people at Kukurantumi who gave us a land for the project.

“We immediately  committed ourselves to it , cut the sod on December 3, 2012 and started  construction works, projecting to finish in four years time,” he said.

However, the group’s thirst of venturing  into other areas led them to Kaneshie in Accra and  Zenu at Ashiaman where the company renovated and started operating a clinic inside the Kaneshie Market. The Kaneshie Medical Centre is now patronised by the market women because it is NHIS accredited.

Later, the group partnered the Trinity Presbyterian Church at Tema Community 4  and transformed an abandoned facility into the next branch of a medical facility at Ashaiman Lebanon.

Both the Kaneshie clinic and that of Zenu at Ashiaman which had a mortuary attached, were inaugurated  on May 4, 2016 and July 1, 2015 respectively.

It was the completion of these two facilities that paved the way for the group’s attention to be focused on the Kukurantumi project, which will now be opened for quality and affordable health care delivery on December 3, 2016.

This will be  in line with the group’s commitment to inaugurate the facility  exactly four years after the sod cutting ceremony was performed.

“We are committed to open the community hospital at Kukurantumi on December 3, 2016 , because it will mark the fourth year  we cut the sod to start it to offer a 24-hour quality, accessible and affordable medical service to the chiefs and people in the catchment area,” he said.

With the inauguration of the Kukurantumi Hospital, TCHG in its totality, will have about 500 employees, made up of doctors, nurses, paramedics, among other staff, and as we continue to open more branches in Ghana, we envisage to employ many more as our contribution to curb the unemployment challenge bedevilling the country” Mr Acquah said.

Vision

On what the future holds for the TCHG, Mr Acquah said the group’s vision was to operate one district one hospital across the country.

“We are going to roll out our vision next year of operating one district one hospital  in Ghana to augment the Ghana Health Service’s efforts. This is because we have already had invitations nationwide. Churches, chiefs and  politicians from the two main political parties among others have opened their doors to us, and we are grabbing them with both hands to serve Ghanaians in moderation and  humility, but purely in a professional manner.

“ The future of the TCHG is to ensure that people have accessibility to health care. Health insurance provide affordability to the ordinary Ghanaian, but it limits them to accessibility. If the hospitals are not available, then accessibility becomes a dream, and that is how the TCHG comes in to fill the gap” he explained.

On funding, he said the Societé Generale Ghana and the National Investment Bank (NIB) had been supportive and commended them for that.

“It has not been our own resources that has seen us this far. Our management style has always been very professional, and in tune with  the banks, so they are always ready to partner us to spread our facilities. That is why we appreciate their efforts so much”. he added.