KATH to build US$300m medical centre of excellence

Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), the nation’s second largest referral facility, is to build a US$300 million medical centre of excellence – to provide up-to-date clinical services.

The 20-storey structure to be known as “KATH Tower” would be constructed under a public-private partnership arrangement.

Dr. Joseph Akpaloo, the Chief Executive, who broke the news indicated that it was going to be a joint venture between the hospital and Kudaar Ark Investment Limited.

Speaking at a thanksgiving durbar held in Kumasi, he said all was about set for the project to take off, in the coming year.

He also hinted of plans to speed up work on a hostel to provide decent accommodation for relatives of patients on admission at the hospital and a nurses’ flats at Bantama.

There would also be the replacement of old equipment, he added. Dr. Akpaloo, however, reminded the workers that the facility could achieve its corporate vision only when they were disciplined, customer-centred and avoided waste in the system.

The management would, therefore, continue to take measures to ensure discipline and improve work ethics through strict analysis of the biometric and fingerprint attendance registration system, which it had introduced.

He told the meeting that despite the challenges, the hospital was able to achieve significant progress.

He cited the replacement of eight lifts at the old ‘Gee’ blocks, installation of two computerised tomography (CT) scans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine, the repair of ventilators and patient monitors.

The hospital was also, accredited during the year, as the African Training Centre by the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists for the training of anaesthetists in the continent.

Again, it became the first medical establishment in West Africa to perform a craniotomy and frontal advancement for a child suffering from coronal-sagittal craniosynostosis.

The year, additionally, saw the start of work on a US$4.5 million ultra-modern sickle cell and blood centre by the Sickle Cell Foundation with funding from the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC).

Dr. Akpaloo said a €175,000 medical incinerator with the capacity to burn 400 kilogrammes of waste was also constructed with support from the German Agency for Technical Co-operation (GIZ).

He applauded the hospital’s board, management and staff for the hard work which had helped to improve the quality of healthcare to patients.