KATH to provide free surgeries

Kumasi, July 7, GNA - The Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) Cleft Clinic in Kumasi is to team up with their Sunyani counterparts to provide free surgery for cleft babies in the Brong-Ahafo Region. Professor Peter Donkor, Head of the Cleft Clinic of the KATH, who announced this, said the KATH was seeking to work with their colleagues in the spirit of the 50th anniversary celebration of Ghana's independence to provide specialist services and also build capacity for cleft care in the Region.

Briefing newsmen on the outreach programme in Kumasi on Friday, he said the programme would start from July 16 to 20 at the Sunyani Regional Children's Hospital.

Prof Donkor indicated that the first day of the programme would be used for screening while the rest of the days would be devoted to surgery. He appealed to parents of cleft babies in the Region and beyond to take full advantage of the programme and to send their babies for their deformities to be corrected.

"The programme will help to bring smiles on the faces of families that would only pay a token fee of 10 Ghana cedis to cover the cost of laboratory investigations", he said. He said when a similar exercise was held at the KATH last year about 100 babies benefited and expressed the hope that parents of cleft babies would patronize the programme.

Prof Donkor said cleft referred to babies born with split lips and deformed palates, a congenial condition which if not corrected through surgery usually impaired the feeding and speech of affected babies. "A number of babies affected by this abnormality fail to thrive due to feeding difficulties and susceptibility to infections. Others are also left to die simply as a result of parental neglect and superstitious beliefs that the condition is due to a curse", he added.