By Anthony Adongo Apubeo
Navrongo (U/E), Sept 27, GNA – The War Memorial Hospital in Navrongo, Kassena-Nankana Municipality of the Upper East Region has received three medium sized oxygen cylinders and eight flow meters worth GH₵6,500.00.
The support is to assist the hospital to address the shortage of oxygen cylinders and deal with emergency cases, to improve upon healthcare delivery in the area.
The items were donated by the Network for Change, a group of young professionals, who have a unique bond with the Kassena-Nankana area.
Presenting the items to the management of the hospital at Navrongo, Mr Clifford Adagnera, a member of the Network for Change, an NGO, revealed that funding for the donation was from the personal contribution of members.
He said the gesture, which was part of the group’s self-help initiative, was to provide immediate relief and lasting support for the healthcare system in the area, particularly the effects the COVID-19 pandemic had on the hospital.
He explained that the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic had stressed healthcare facilities to their limit, hence the group engaged the management of the War Memorial Hospital to ascertain the pressing needs of the hospital and oxygen cylinders were topmost priority.
“This donation is part of the group’s desire to see an improvement in healthcare delivery in the hospital. It is the group’s expectations that this donation will go a long way to save lives, strengthen the hospital’s emergency response, and contribute to improved healthcare to patients in Navrongo.”
Mr Gideon Made, a member of the group, said it was about time communities developed the culture of owning challenges and contributing to resolving them.
“As a group, we think that in our own individual ways in our communities, we should be able to contribute to the needs of people by dealing with physical challenges that our facilities face.
We are not doing this to be able to project ourselves but we want to send a message to other people that in our own way we should be able to mobilise resources to push the development agenda of the communities we belong to,” he added.
Receiving the items, Dr Eric Wedam, the Medical Superintendent, War Memorial Hospital, lauded the efforts of the group for assisting to improve upon healthcare delivery.
Dr Wedam noted that the hospital was confronted with many challenges, including inadequate supply of consumable and non-consumable supplies being used daily and noted that the hospital currently had only one autoclave which was obsolete.
The Network 4 Change, formed in 2019, is a group of young professionals with over 30 members with strong ties to Navrongo.
These ties have imbued in each member of the group a spirit of local initiative, self-help, and a sense of community service and the group envisions a better Navrongo through a collaborative youth network that promotes a culture of local initiative and self-help in the resolution of local challenges.
GNA