Sekondi-Takoradi citizens abroad provide Haemodialysis Unit for Takoradi Hospital

A fully fitted Haemodialysis Unit has been inaugurated for the Takoradi Hospital, making the hospital the second public hospital in the Western Region to have a dialysis unit to provide critical dialysis treatment to patients with kidney disease.

Fully sponsored by a global network of citizens from Sekondi-Takoradi living abroad, known as the Sekondi-Takoradi Progressive Club Global, the $150,000 Dialysis Unit, fitted with two modern dialysis machines, is intended to make the government’s free dialysis treatment policy accessible and beneficial to many in the Western Region.

It will also help provide critical service to ease the pressure on the Effia-Nkwanta Hospital.

In the whole of the Western Region, there are only two public hospitals with dialysis units serving a population of over one million. 

Though the  Effia-Nkwanta Hospital Dialysis Unit in Sekondi, which is the main Western regional referral centre, has four dialysis machines, only one is functional currently and can attend to just about five patients out of 25 expected daily sessions.

Relief

At the handover ceremony, the President of the Sekondi-Takoradi Progressive Club Global, Dr Caroline Ewurabena Ampah, said it was to end the stressful and expensive long distances kidney patients had to make just to access treatment.

“This was also established based on the fact that kidney problems have been an issue globally, especially in the Western Region of Ghana. “The progressive club had a look and realised that pollution from galamsey is causing a lot of problems.

“It is just unfortunate that we have a lot of people on dialysis and we don’t even know the depth of this threat,” she said.

She appealed to the government to absorb all costs of dialysis and general kidney treatment to make life bearable for patients who had to also deal with the psychological issues their condition presented.

She expressed appreciation to members of the group who gave generously to not only provide the facility but also donate 45 boxes of assorted medical consumables to the hospital.

Critical service

Also speaking at the function, the Medical Superintendent of the Takoradi Hospital, Dr George Peprah, expressed appreciation to the members of the group for their foresight, saying their support would help the facility to efficiently provide the needed health care to kidney patients.

“Even before we even inaugurated the unit, these machines have done 300 sessions of dialysis already, and so we are grateful to the Progressive Club Global.

“This is a great facility that the Sekondi-Takoradi Progressive Club Global has delivered to us, giving us two brand new dialysis machines to provide critical service. 

“We were sending patients to Effia-Nkwanta, which also has its challenges, Cape Coast and sometimes as far as Accra, just to have access to dialysis services.

“With these machines, we can now have our dialysis in-house and the demand is so high, like Oliver Twist, we humbly call for more machines to expand the services,” Dr Peprah stated.

A former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Prof. Emeritus Nii Boi Tagoe, stressing the dire state of access to dialysis treatment, said 10 per cent of Ghanaian kidney patients who were on dialysis treatment were unable to continue dialysis beyond three months due to the high cost and difficulties with accessing dialysis treatment.

Prof. Tagoe, who is also a medical doctor, said while the government had made a large portion of the cost of dialysis treatment free for Ghanaians, the lack of dialysis centres across the country was also affecting the real impact of the policy.

He, therefore, commended the Sekondi-Takoradi Progressive Club Global for the gesture, describing it as a ‘life-saving gesture.’