St Dominic Catholic Hospital inaugurates Ghana’s first low-helium MRI scanner machine

In its quest to expand radiology services in the Eastern Region, the St Dominic Catholic Hospital, Akwatia, has become the first health facility in the region to install an MRI scan.

Additionally, the hospital has become the first in the country to have installed a low-helium scanner machine, from Siemens, as well as the first institution under the Catholic Health Service Trust to have achieved such a feat.

This was made possible after EASE Ghana installed the multipurpose, state-of-the-art machine at the hospital on Wednesday, January 10, 2024.

The commissioning also marks the debut of Siemens Magnetom Free.Star Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanner technology in Ghana. The MRI scanner utilises Siemens’ latest low-helium scanner technology, enabling greater energy savings, while maintaining high-quality imaging.

Siemens’ innovative technology, combined with EASE®️’s distinctive pay-per-scan equipment-as-a-service model, made the machine accessible and affordable for SDCH.

The EASE®️ model allows institutions to avoid upfront capital costs, allowing the hospital to utilise cash flows generated from scans to cover the cost of the service, which not only includes using the scanner, but also first-class support, training and servicing of the equipment.

Speaking at the forecourt of the hospital to outdoor the machine, Dr. Kanyinsola Oyeyinka, Vice President of EASE Healthcare and Managing Director of EASE Ghana, explained her excitement at this groundbreaking milestone for the St Dominic Catholic Hospital.

She explained that this initiative that has been taken by the hospital ties into the growing sophistication and the need to improve healthcare equipment around the world.

“I’d like to congratulate the St Dominic team on this milestone which will bring significant impact and benefits to patients at St Dominic, the surrounding communities and the people of the Eastern Region.

“As healthcare needs across the globe become more complex, MRI scanners are increasingly an important tool for accurate diagnosis and disease management. Given the very high costs that’s associated with acquiring these machines, it will be very significant and serve our population in Ghana and many parts of Africa.

“Equipment as a service, which is what EASE offers, allows healthcare facilities to procure high-value equipment that was previously inaccessible to them, thereby increasing the quality of care that will be delivered to their patients,” she said.

Dr. Kanyinsola Oyeyinka was also particularly happy this technology has come to the SDCH

“As a physician myself, I can relate with some of the challenges faced by the team at St Dominic, and in many other hospitals when the required infrastructure to offer the best care to patients is not available and so I’m very proud that EASE has been able to support St Dominic to ensure MRI access for its patients, and also really proud that we’re able to offer equipment at a service in Ghana in general.

“… We offer equipment as a service to all our customers, and through our pay-per-use model, we provide them with cost-effective access to state-of-the-art equipment on terms that match their business needs and circumstances. So, our customers pay for the use of the machine with the cash which the machine itself generates.

“… We have found several reasons to believe that St Dominic is truly a custodian of an EASE MRI scanner. First, our research showed that there were no working MRIs in the Eastern Region, and in particular, St Dominic patients would have to travel, in some cases, for about 3 hours by road from Akwatia to access MRI services. We did that journey this morning from Accra; it’s not an easy journey when you’re well, let alone if you’re not feeling well,” she explained.



Mr. Frans VanSchaik, Chairman of EASE Holdings BV Board of Directors and CEO of African Asset Finance Company speaking at the event

Frans VanSchaik, Chairman of EASE Holdings BV Board of Directors and CEO of African Asset Finance Company, also speaking at the event, recalled his personal experience and how an MRI once saved his life.

He further called on the government of Ghana to reinstate the exemptions it gives to the importation of medical equipment so as to allow for cheaper transactions for institutions that need their services.

“Personally, I do believe that healthcare is not just an obligation for us because we care for our sick, but it’s also a right for people that we should try and honour.

“We do our little bit, and I take this opportunity of standing here today by urging the Ghanaian government to reinstate the duty-free exemptions for medical equipment so that we can actually make it cheaper,” he appealed.

On her part, the Medical Director of the St Dominic Catholic Hospital, Dr Maite Alfonso Romero, recalled the inspiration for the hospital to want to get the MRI scanner.

She narrated how some persons had tried to discourage them, with the excuse that they were not deserving of such high-level machines, but against all odds, they determined and got even better equipment for the facility.

“Five years back, I traveled with Father Abban with the mission of getting some funds to help us acquire a CT Scan machine, we received this discouraged answer ‘St.Dominic Hospital is not at a level of a CT.Scan, you don’t need a CT.Scan at all, in a small town like Akwatia’ that person was smiling and fixed his eyes on us while he was expressing that sentence.

“I can't deny that our legs flexed a little at that moment, however few hours later, our thoughts became stronger, because with got one more reason why we need to get the CT Scan. Two years later we bought the CT Scan machine and today we have an MRI Scan, which is a highly advanced medical imaging technique that uses magnetic fields and radio waves to generate detailed images of the human body,” she said.

Also present at the ceremony was the Catholic Bishop of Koforidua Diocese, Most Rev Joseph Afrifah-Agyekum.



Dr. Kanyinsola Oyeyinka (left), Managing Director, EASE Ghana, and Dr. Maite Alfonso Romero, Medical Director, St. Dominic Catholic Hospital cutting the tape to open the facility that houses the MRI Scanner. Looking on are Most Rev. Joseph Afrifah-Agyekum (right), Catholic Bishop of Koforidua Diocese and other dignitaries

AE