Axim government hospital gets support from Italy

The Nkosuohene (Development Chief) of Lower Axim Traditional Area, Nana Osei Nkwantabisa has donated 48 modern hospital beds and other medical equipment to the Axim Government Hospital of the Nzema East Municipality of the Western Region.

The presentation was facilitated by Mr. Enrico Biasutti of the Italian Embassy, Accra and sponsored by ‘Futuro Per Tutti’ (Future for All), an Italian based NGO and supported in Ghana by Dr. Nii Armaa Ollennu, Vice President of Italian Business Association of Ghana (IBAG) and doubles as Chairman of La Villa Boutique Hotel and Olma Suites, Accra and Mr. Enrico Desimone, President of the Italian Business Association of Ghana (IBAG) and Chairman of Desimone Construction, Tema.

Presenting the equipment in a mini durbar held at the hospital premises last Saturday, the Nkosuohene (Development Chief) Nana Osei Nkwantabisa in his speech expressed appreciation to the donors for supporting the health needs of his area.

He also appeal to other donor partners to come to the health needs of the hospital especially the theater which is currently under renovation by the traditional council as a result of the 2017 annual Kundum festival celebration which sought to raise GH 50,000 as seed capital for the exercise.

“my office and the traditional council have over the past months are in touch with management to ensure that the theatre is given a befitting facelift which have not seen any major works for over five decades and urge all to as a matter of urgency come to our aide to enable complete the exercise, and may I further thank those who supported me to achieve this worthy course especially “Futuro Per Tutti”, Mr. Enrico Biasutti of the Italian Embassy, Awulae Attibrukusu lll, and Dr. Nii Armah Ollennu my long time friend”

On his part, the Paramount Chief of Lower Axim Traditional Area, Awulae Attibrukusu lll urged management and staff of the hospital to take good care of the equipment and lauded the Nkosuohene for his visionary initiatives towards changing the lives of the people within and outside his jurisdiction. He commended the donors for their selfless dedication towards giving to the society and called on all to emulate the gesture by the Italian community.

Receiving the equipment on behalf of the hospital and other health centres, the administrator of Axim Government Hospital, Mr. Domie Godswill thanked the donors and Nana Osei Nkwantabisa, Nkosuohene of Lower Axim Traditional Area for their kind gesture to the hospital.

He expressed worry over some challenges bedeviled by the hospital, which he stressed as the delay in payment of NHIS claims, poor infrastructure, absence of X-ray machine, disorganized OPD system, the deplorable state of hospital Theatre called on the public to come to the aid of the hospital.

Mr. Enrico Biasutti of the Italian Embassy, Accra and country representative of ‘Futuro Per Tutti’ (Future for All), the facilitator of the equipment highlighted that the exercise was eminent since it is focus on complementing the challenges faced by the hospital.

He added that the gesture was necessitated when he first visited the chiefs and people to celebrated the 2017 annual Kundum festival, hence the facilitation of the equipment and promised of his continuous collaboration towards assisting Axim and its environs through the partnership with the office of the Lower Axim Nkosuohene (Development Chief) to herald the developmental agenda of the area.

Dr. Nii Armaa Ollennu, Vice president of Italian Business Association (IBAG) and Chairman of La Villa Boutique Hotel in Accra assured the chiefs and people of Axim of his continuous support through the collaboration with the Nkosuohene (Development Chief).

He pledged a donation GH 20,000 towards the renovation of the hospital Theatre project on behalf of his partner Federico Barbisotti of La Villa Boutique Hotel as their social corporate responsibility as well as $ 2,000 to support other activities especially building the fence wall project to safeguard the lives and properties of the hospital which is currently under construction by the Nkosuohene (Development chief).

The hospital, which was built in 1925 serves over 200,000 patients annually and efforts, are being put in place to give it a facelift to become a modernized standard hospital with modern equipment.

The items donated were 48 beds with 30 allocated to the Axim Government Hospital whiles eighteen (18) donated to fourteen (14) health and CHIP compounds within the Nzema East Municipality, covering the Lower and Upper Axim Traditional Councils, Nsein Traditional Area, Ajomoro Traditional Area and Gwira Traditional Area respectively.

Other medical equipment include disposable gloves, X-ray Viewer machine and a baby court to the maternity ward. The consignment also include educational teaching and learning materials, clothes, toys and kids’ shoes, which is scheduled to be distributed to some selected nursery and basic schools within the municipality by the office of the Nkosuohene.