Abor Hospital celebrates golden anniversary

Abor, Oct. 11, GNA- The Sacred Heart Hospital at Abor, in the Volta Region at the weekend marked its 50th anniversary as a health institution with a durbar at Abor.

It started, as an infirmary in 1954, by a group of Roman Catholic Missionaries to cater for the health needs of communities where they were engaged in evangelisation.

It later developed into a Health Centre and was transformed into a Hospital in 1998 under the management of the Keta-Akatsi Diocese of the Catholic Mission.

Strategically located along the Accra-Aflao highway, the 90-bed capacity Hospital has 96 staff, a laboratory, Out Patients Department (OPD), operating theatres, maternity ward a mortuary and some staff accommodation.

Dr Andrew Arde-Acquah, the Regional Director of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), in a speech read on his behalf, acclaimed the hard work of the Management and Staff, who generated 90 per cent of the funds for the expansion and renovation works of the Hospital.

He said the health facility played a major role in catering for accident victims along the busy Accra-Aflao highway.

Dr Arde-Acquah said the GHS, would sustain a healthy cooperation with other medical institutions to enhance accessibility to health care in the country.

"The Ministry of Health would continue to support the missions in staffing their hospitals and pay salaries and allowances," he said. Dr Arde-Aquah called on the people to avoid the practice of keeping the bodies of dead relatives in the mortuaries for long periods to avoid the huge bills that went along with it.

He noted that though the practice generated revenue for the hospitals, it deprived the families of money they could have otherwise used for other productive ventures.

Mr Christian Akoto-Brown, Executive Secretary, Keta-Akatsi Catholic Diocesan Health Council, paid tribute to organisations who supported the expansion works at the Hospital.

He said the OPD attendance at the Hospital, which serves the Keta, Akatsi, South-Tongu and Ketu districts, stood at 19,000 per annum. Mr Akoto-Brown said the Saint Anthony's Hospital at Dzodze in the Ketu District, was also founded by the missionaries.

Mr Dan Abodakpi, Member of Parliament for Keta, asked the Hospital to evolve an outreach programme to educate the people on how to reduce the infant mortality rate which stood at 64 out of every 1,000 births, according to the 2002/2003 Ghana Demographic Survey.

Dr Pious Mensah, the only Medical Officer at post, called for posting of extra hands, including nurses.

He also expressed the need for extra accommodation for staff. A 150-million cedis, two-bedroom nurses quarters built at the cost of 150 million cedis was commissioned.