By Ibrahim Nurudeen, GNA
Tamale, April 8, GNA – The Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH) and the University for Development Studies (UDS) through the support of the Academic Model for the Provision of Access to Healthcare (AMPATH) have taken delivery of Biosafety Levels (BSL) 2 & 3 Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory.
Dr Adam Atiku, Acting Chief Executive Officer, TTH, who announced this, said the laboratory would be set up at the TTH to enhance diagnotics services and research.
He further announced that through the partnership amongst the TTH, UDS and AMPATH, “A 3 million USD grant has been received for the construction of a state of the art simulation centre to facilitate training and research at TTH and UDS.”
He was speaking at the 2023 Annual Performance Review of the TTH in Tamale to reflect on the hospital’s performance, review and critique its achievements, challenges and the path ahead.
It was on the theme: “TTH at 50: Changing the Narrative: Repositioning for Excellence.”
Dr Atiku said last year, with support from the Bank of Ghana, the TTH acquired two brand new dental chairs in preparation to start dentistry training.
He said, “Even though we are a tertiary facility, we attend to a large of patients with primary health problems. A polyclinic was thus created to cater for the needs of those clients. Since then, TTH has been recording increases in OPD attendance from just 79,000 in 2021 to over 180,000 in 2023.”
He added that specialist OPD attendance had also recorded increases from 29,000 in 2021 to over 50,000 in 2023.
He said despite improvements in key performance indicators, maternal mortality recorded an increase from 719 per 100,000 live births to 1,210 per 100,000 live births, adding pragmatic steps had been taken to reduce the trend.
Alhaji Hafiz Adam, Chief Director, Ministry of Health, spoke about some practices affecting health care delivery saying “Situations of conflicting interests where staff have their own healthcare facilities competing with TTH for clients and resources, and most recently the resurgence of the mass exodus of health professionals are among some of the internal challenges affecting the hospital’s operations.”
He said, “Ghana is counting on us as health workers, and especially in the case of TTH, which is the only tertiary referral facility in these parts of the country, the need for us to be exceptional in our day-to-day operations cannot be overemphasised.”
Dr Abdulai Abukari, Northern Regional Director of Health, expressed need for effective collaboration between the Regional Health Directorate and the TTH towards the delivery of quality health services to the people.
Alhaji Shani Alhassan Saibu, Northern Regional Minister, urged Management of the TTH to continue working towards the realisation of the hospital’s goals and objectives.
GNA