The Management of the Ho Teaching Hospital in collaboration with ICS Africa has launched a campaign dubbed “Save a Heart Save a Life” project to raise funds for the full operationalization of the hospital’s Cardiothoracic Disease Center.
The campaign which was launched at a stakeholder engagement in Ho on Thursday is aimed at raising funds to be used to purchase standard cardiothoracic equipment and to set up different units needed for the disease center.
For the past 3 years, the cardiothoracic center at the hospital has operated as an Out-Patient Department due to the unavailability of standard equipment needed to fully operationalize the facility to be able to undertake heart surgeries and other critical services related to heart diseases.
As a result, the regional hospital is forced to refer such cases to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra.
As at November 2020, the Ho Teaching Hospital had 1,023 patients come in for cardiovascular treatment. Between January to June this year, the hospital has already had 729 patients, all of whom were treated on OPD basis.
The fundraising which will be spearheaded by ICS Africa is intended is aimed at raising some $3.2 million Dollars.
Explaining the situation, the Head of the Cardiothoracic Center, Dr. Frank Edwin said, “Unlike what we have in the Cardio center in Accra where you have the full spectrum of equipment to do diagnosis and go-ahead to operate, here that is not available. So what we are able to do here is basically medical treatment. We need to equip the center to build an operating theatre and to equip an intensive unit that will enable us to carry out at least some of the operations that we are able to do in Korle-Bu that we can do here.”
He added that most of the patients referred from the Ho Teaching Hospital to Korle-Bu are reluctant and are unable to go to Accra to the services.
According to the Head of the Surgical Sub Budget Management Committee, Dr. Nelson Afram, the cardiothoracic center means a lot to the hospital and needs to be fully equipped.
He said, “As we equip the Cardio center, for us as a surgical Sub-BMC it is good for us because we can have some of our patients who need the cardiothoracic services here instead of referring them to Accra and at the same time, the patients can develop other conditions and as the surgeries are here, we can work together to manage those conditions.”
The Chief Executive Officer of the hospital, John Tampouri also stated further that the hospital may not be able to retain doctors posted to the Cardiothoracic Center if the facility fails to fully operate in the coming days.
When fully equipped, the Cardiothoracic Center at the hospital would be able to admit patients on both Out-Patient and In-Patient basis.
The facility is also expected to serve as a health tourist center when it fully begins operations.
Source: Starrfm.com.gh/103.5fm/Faisel Abdul-Iddrisu