Ghana makes a giant stride in cardiac health delivery - CDS

Accra, Jan. 21, GNA - Major General Peter Augustine Blay, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) on Thursday said the establishment of a Cardiac Centre at the 37 Military Hospital was a giant stride in cardiac health delivery in Ghana.

He said it was a success story that would benefit patients suffering from heart related problems in the country. Maj. Gen. Blay made the observation when Professor Charles Yankah of German Heart Institute in Berlin, Germany, called on him in Accra. Professor Yankah arrived in Ghana to participate in the four-day Accra Heart Summit organized in collaboration with the Postgraduate College of the Military Hospital.

He said the hospital was a national emergency centre and the cardiac centre would position it to serve the people better, in addition to creating a network with other health facilities in the country. Maj. Gen. Blay said plans were underway to allocate budgetary support to the centre to operate efficiently and effectively.

"The Military High Command is grateful for your immense contribution to the hospital and the nation as a whole," he said. Prof. Yankah one of the cardiac surgeons who performed the first heart surgery at the Military Hospital, thanked the hospital authorities for the assistance to the team and hosting a successful summit that had created awareness of cardiovascular diseases in Africa. He announced that authorities of the German Heart Institute in Berlin and the Centre for Cardiac Surgery, University of Erlangen, Germany, were negotiating with the hospital authorities to train six experts for the 37 Military Hospital Cardiac Centre. The first heart surgery at the hospital was performed on Master Danielle Opare, a three-month-old baby, by Prof. Charles Yankah and Prof. Michael Weyand of Centre for Cardiac Surgery, University of Erlangen, Germany.

The 37 Military Hospital Cardiac Centre is the second cardio centre in the country after that of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital.