New blood bank for Cape Coast Teaching Hospital

Telecommunications giant, MTN has handed over a blood donation centre and bank to the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital (CCTH).

The facility was given out by the MTN Ghana Foundation following a request made by authorities of the hospital to help strengthen its blood supply system and make it sustainable.

The facility has a reception area, office, donor lounge/corridor, bleeding room, laboratory, fridge room, storeroom, washroom and locally fabricated donation couches.

Thanking MTN Ghana Foundation for the gesture, a Haematologist at CCTH, Dr Leticia Lokko, decried the low turnout for voluntary blood donation, describing the situation as worrying.

She said the situation had made it difficult and created a perennial shortage of blood in health facilities.

She said Ghana could only boast 37 per cent of voluntary blood donations, which fell below the 100 per cent voluntary donations espoused by the World Health Organisation (WHO), and that meant that hosts of Ghanaians with various health conditions who required blood transfusion might lose their lives as a result of the non-availability of blood.

“Voluntary blood donation is woefully low in our part of the world to resolve all of our blood needs and meet what WHO has spelt out for us.

“There is the need to put in measures to stop blood shortage in the country and I appeal to corporate organisations and other public service institutions to come on board and support,” she stated.

Timely intervention

The Chief Executive Officer of CCTH, Dr Eric Kofi Ngyedu, said the blood bank had come at an appropriate time to improve maternal health delivery and it would go a long way to “save the lives of both mother and child”.

He said the facility was a life-saving and therapeutic intervention that had come in to augment the hospital’s blood services and improve blood donation and blood delivery services.

Dr Ngyedu pledged to ensure the efficient use of the facility to serve its purpose and ensure that there were committed staff who would maintain the highest standards at all times.

“This hospital will use this facility to its optimal level and maintain it to serve generations to come,” he stated.

Maintenance

The Chief Corporate Services Executive of MTN, Mr Samuel Koranteng, said his outfit deemed it fit to join hands in making a significant contribution to the health needs of residents of the region, hence the decision to respond to the call to come to the hospital’s aid.

He, however, charged management of the facility to ensure the highest form of maintenance, adding that he was hopeful that the facility would be able to serve all manner of persons.

“Let us keep to the highest form of maintenance and we are hopeful that if we visit here five years from now, we will see it in its best form,” he said.

He further charged the public to keep observing safety protocols while maintaining that COVID-19 was still prevalent.

The Omanhen of the Oguaa Traditional Area, Osabarima Kwesi Atta II, for his part called for adequate education on blood donation to demystify any myth surrounding the exercise.

He said people had misconceptions, hence their reservations on voluntarily donating blood.

“Blood shortage cannot continue in this age. We must intensify education to kill the misconceptions, educate people to know that there is nothing wrong in donating blood and let the education go as far as possible,” he enjoined.