Finance Minister donates dialysis machines, water tanks to Tamale Teaching Hospital

The Minister of Finance, Mohammed Amin Adam, has donated three dialysis machines and 10 polytanks to the Tamale Teaching Hospital.

The dialysis machines are expected to augment the existing machines to provide dialysis services to patients who require them.

Currently, the hospital has only two functioning dialysis machines, making it difficult to properly provide its services to the large number of patients traveling in from across Northern Ghana and other neighbouring countries.

On the other hand, the 10 polytanks, each with a 10,000-litre capacity, are expected to help the hospital store some water for the various procedures.

The hospital has been recently hit with an acute water shortage due to a limited supply of water to the facility by Ghana Water Company Limited.

Mohamed Amin Adam held a brief meeting with the management of TTH on Wednesday to hand over the items.

He said there was a need to holistically address the water challenges facing the hospital, whose underground water system has not been working properly for a while now.

He therefore made an additional donation of Gh¢100,000 to support the rehabilitation of the underground water system of the hospital.

“I’m also told you have underground tanks that need to be refurbished, and the GWCL has asked you to pay some money to refurbish the tanks. A teaching hospital like this should not be faced with water problems because everything you do is about water. So I will provide some support in that respect, starting tomorrow with 100,000 Ghana Cedis so that we can get them to come and start the work,” he said.

The finance minister added that he saw the need to personally support the facility with the dialysis machines because the two were inadequate.

“People have to queue for dialysis services, and I know that some of them have died because they have not had access to these services, and the two dialysis machines here against the population that require the services of dialysis machines are woefully inadequate,” he added.

Mohammed Amin Adam, who is also the Member of Parliament for Karaga, urged the hospital to embark on a serious public relations campaign to let the world know about the specialists and high-level professional services they provide.

He noted that “the high-level professional services you provide should be known to everybody. Many people should know that this hospital can do very complex operations. Many people may not know that [plastic surgeries] are happening in Tamale.”

Finance Minister provides clearance for casual staff to be employed permanently:

The minister disclosed that he had also provided clearance for the hospital to recruit 100 casual staff permanently.

He said he would work with the health ministry to secure more clearance for the 200 other casual staff of the hospital.

This, he noted, would ensure the hospital has the full staff needed to successfully run the facility.

“I also supported providing clearance for the recruitment of 100 staff who are currently not fully employed, but I’m told there are 200 more, and so I’ll work with the minister of health to see what we can do about that so that you can have the full potential of people who are working here without having to use your IGF to pay them allowances,” he disclosed.

Dr. Atik Adam commended the minister for his support and pledged to make good use of the equipment.