British volunteers help train Ghanaians in Endoscopy in Koforidua

A four-day skills training workshop to produce staff with professional competence to run the Endoscopic Centre of the Koforidua Regional Hospital has opened at the Hospital in Koforidua in the Eastern Region.

The workshop is being facilitated by a six-member endoscopic doctors and nurses specialists from the University Hospital of Leicester in the United Kingdom.

Endoscopy is the use of light and cameras to examine and resolve medical challenges in the intestines.

Speaking at the formal opening of the workshop, Dr Cardinal Newton, Clinical Director of the Koforidua Regional Hospital, said about ten per cent of the patients treated by the Hospital annually need endoscopy examination for diagnosis of their diseases.

He said in the past, the Hospital had been referring such persons to Accra or Kumasi for examinations but realized that many of the patients did not go because of the cost involved.

Dr Newton said as a result, the management of the Hospital decided to use its internally generated fund to establish an Endoscopy Centre last year to help improve the health service delivery of the Hospital.

He said currently the Hospital has a visiting specialist in endoscopy from Akwatia and some nurses of the Hospital who had received some training to run the centre.

Dr Newton said after the training, the Hospital would have sufficient staff to increase the clinical days for endoscopy examination from once a week to four days in a week.

The leader of the training team, Dr Richard Robinson, said endoscopy when efficiently use, could help avoid a lot of unnecessary surgery and help reduce the cost of medical care.

He said the main aim of his group was to establish good endoscopy training centres in the country.

Dr Robinson said his group had already help established a training centre at the 37 Military Hospital, Accra and in other regions of the country.