Koforidua, Feb 24, GNA – The Eastern Regional Hospital has received three dialysis machines worth 120,000 Ghana cedis after commissioning a Dialysis Centre for the first time in the facility last Wednesday.
Mrs Felicia Ofori-Atta and her children in partnership with BDAC Foundation donated all three dialysis units in honour of her late husband, Dr George Fredua Agyeman Ofori-Atta, a Ghanaian-trained medical practitioner who died after a six-year struggle with kidney failure.
The widow said, although her husband died, he benefitted from the services of a dialysis centre in the United States, and that she wanted to ensure that such a lifesaving unit was built in all public institutions to save lives.
She said “My vision and that of my family is to raise funds to purchase dialysis machines for at least one medical facility in all the 16 regions of Ghana, “which have no dialysis centres because from our experience it’s a life-saving health intervention.”
The machines were donated to coincide with the opening of a newly built dialysis centre at the Regional Hospital in Koforidua to give vital treatment to persons suffering from renal failure.
Dr Arko Akoto-Ampaw, Medical Director of the Eastern Regional Hospital, said treating patients with renal failure was difficult and that the only alternative was to refer them to Accra or Kumasi for treatment.
He said patients with renal impairment or failure have no choice but to be referred, even though the referral comes at a high expense and inconvenience to the patients.
He said in 2021, 48 of 58 patients with renal impairment or kidney disorders who attended clinic in the facility and requires dialysis were referred to Accra and Kumasi.
Dr Akoto-Ampaw said most hospitals were downsizing their operations under Covid-19, making referrals problematic “We decided to take the bull by the horns in order to build this centre.”
He thanked the BDAC Foundation and the Dr George Ofori-Atta family for assisting them in establishing the centre with the necessary logistics, and for assisting the management for bringing into fruition this vision .
Dr Yaw Ofori-Boadu, Head of Institutional Care of the Ghana Health Service, who represented the Director-General, said, the agency was proud of the speed with which it was developing and expanding access to vital health interventions like dialysis.
He said the dialysis centre shows that the hospital was moving towards acute care services, and he was hopeful that with a little push, it might add a kidney transplant centre to provide complete care in that area.
Dr Winfred Ofosu, Eastern Regional Director of Health, said the establishment of the dialysis centre would minimize the burden of referring patients with renal impairments to other places, with the associated inconvenience and costs.
He praised the hospital’s management for extending healthcare services but asked the public to take good care of their health, particularly those with high blood pressure or diabetes in order to avoid kidney damage.
Mr Seth Acheampong, Eastern Regional Minister, who commissioned and unveiled the dialysis centre’s plaque, was full of praise for the Regional Hospital’s administration and all those who helped in bringing the centre into fruition.
GNA