Prison Service donates to Cardio Centre

Accra, Feb 20, GNA- Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, Chief Executive Officer of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital on Friday said unless donations to the Cardio Thoracic Centre was intensified, it would be difficult to maintain the provision of high standard medical care at the unit.

This was because, the centre is currently relying on obsolete equipment, some of which were acquired since 1989, and also have only two wards instead of the required eight.

Prof Frimpong-Boateng, who is also the director of the Centre, has therefore, called on Ghanaians to intensify donations to the centre for it to maintain its high standard in health care delivery.

Prof. Frimpong-Boateng made the appeal when he received a donation of 10 million cedis from the Ghana Prisons Service (GPS) in Accra. The donation, sponsored by the Prisons Officers Welfare Association was given to the centre to help in its services.

The Acting Director-General of GPS, Mr William K. Asiedu and some officers of the welfare association presented the money. Prof. Frimpong-Boateng said the gesture by the Prison officers to the Heart Foundation was laudable, because it emphasised their care for the sick, adding, "considering your financial status, you have done very well."

According to him, the Foundation was still relevant and would continue to be relevant considering the fact that most of the cases reported at the centre would not be covered by the National Health Insurance Scheme.

He said, "we therefore need more money to enable us take care of cases which are almost treated free of charge".

He said government subvention to the centre was woefully inadequate which emphasizes the need for more people to donate to assist in its operations, saying if every Ghanaian could donate at least 200 cedis to the centre every month, we could treat every heart case free of charge. According to Prof Frimpong-Boateng, less than 5,000 people donate to the centre monthly and that was not good enough.

He said the centre, which was currently a centre of excellence in the sub-region, could be turned into a world centre of excellence when given the needed push and support since a lot of foreign physicians were currently being trained there.

The Prisons' Executive Officer, Mr Asiedu, commended Prof Frimpong-Boateng and his team for their selflessness and dedication to duty.