Korle Bu appeals for organ harvesting law -• Launches centenary celebration

The Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) has called on Parliament and other agencies to speed up processes towards the passage of the law on tissue donation, harvesting and storage of various organs.

It said that would save the lives of thousands of Ghanaians who were sick and in need of help.

The Board Chairman of the KBTH, Dr David Nkansa-Dwamena, said that at the launch of the centenary celebration of the nation’s premier hospital in Accra yesterday.

In recent times, there have been concerns about high cost of services for persons diagnosed with kidney diseases, for instance, which has called for certain measures to ameliorate the suffering of such patients.

In this regard, Dr Nkansa-Dwamena said, the board was supporting management to secure the necessary legislative framework to formalise transplantation services in the country, and also to introduce other services and procedures through further training of staff that would make it needless for Ghanaians to travel to other countries for medical care.

Dr Nkansa-Dwamena said the institution had already begun with the introduction of kidney transplant services by a local team of surgeons, nephrologist and other professionals, and, therefore, the law would enhance their activities.

As part of the premier hospital’s centenary celebration, he said the KBTH had initiated a campaign to have corporate Ghana, philanthropists and individuals adopt the various wards and maintain their facilities.

Dubbed “Adopt a Ward Initiative”, the campaign is to help improve on healthcare services at the hospital as it works on attaining universal health coverage for the country.

Dr Nkansa-Dwamena said KBTH was a big hospital with some complexities that required hard work, dedication and commitment to address them, and, therefore, such support from corporate Ghana and philanthropists would place the institution on a higher pedestal.

Already, he said, a number of corporate bodies had adopted some of the wards and were maintaining them, but there was a need for more to join for expansion of services in order to offer quality health care to the people.

KBTH, he said, had embarked on several projects geared towards shoring up the capacity of the hospital to meet the demands of patients, and that although some of the ongoing projects were about to see their successful completion, “we also have to provide direction on some of the ageing infrastructure that require replacement”.

He, therefore, appealed for support to help the hospital to achieve its mandate.

Activities for celebration

The year-long centenary celebration will be characterised by a series of activities dubbed “100 ways to celebrate 100 years”.

The Chief Executive Officer of KBTH, Dr Opoku Ware Ampomah, outlining some of the 100 activities earmarked for the celebration, said the institution would unveil its infrastructure master plan, secure elevators for maternity, surgical, allied surgery, internal medicine, dental and children blocks, construct a water farm, revamp Korle Bu Trust Fund, launch a staff medicare scheme and rename wards after key personalities.

He said despite the challenges the institution faced, KBTH had undergone several transformational phases, positioning itself to become a medical tourism hub in the sub-region and help the country to achieve universal health coverage.

KBTH, the CEO said, remained a very important institution in healthcare delivery in the country, and that aside from the training of health personnel, it attended to about 2,000 patients on a daily basis and admitted about 250 people every day, offering them quality healthcare services.

Dr Ampomah said the celebration would witness the honouring of people who had contributed immensely to the success of KBTH for the past 100 years, saying “it is on the legacy of these people that Korle Bu continues to flourish”.

“Korle Bu is a national asset. We must work hard and support it to deliver its healthcare mandate to Ghanaians,” he said.

Government initiatives

A Deputy Minister of Health, Tina Mensah, said historically, the establishment of the premier hospital marked the beginning of the development of other professions in the field of health in the country.

“Professions such as medicine, nursing, laboratory science, radiographical and dispensary services, among others, all sprouted from the establishment of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital,” she said.

The impact created by KBTH, she said, had been felt far and wide across the country.

KBTH, she added, also derived a decent number of patient traffic from other countries in West Africa such as Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Liberia, Togo, Benin and Burkina Faso.

The government, Ms Mensah said, would continue to retool the hospital with new infrastructure and equipment to make it stay ahead of competition not only in Ghana, but within the sub-region.

Already completed projects at the hospital, she mentioned, included the reconstructed Fevers Unit and the new Infectious Disease Centre, which were initiated during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, and a 110-bed Urology and Nephrology Centre of Excellence which was due for completion by the end of December this year.

Ms Mensah said the sod had also been cut for the construction of a 400-bed 13-storey Women's Hospital valued at €145 million.

“There is also the Diabetes Centre Rehabilitation Project, which is at the level of completion,” she said.

These and many other projects, she said, were being provided in KBTH to enable it to continue to play a leading role in providing advanced health care to patients.