Sunyani Regional Hospital gets $57 million equipment

The Government has purchased assorted medical equipment worth $57 million for the Brong Ahafo Regional Hospital in Sunyani.

Apart from that government has also spent $5 million to purchase similar health equipment to supply various district hospitals in the Region.

Sherry Ayittey, Minister of Health, who announced this at a stakeholders’ meeting in Sunyani said the intention is to enhance the performance of the beneficiary hospitals in the health delivery system.

The meeting was attended by Municipal/District Chief Executives (M/DCEs), traditional rulers, Civil Society groups, the media, health personnel, including Medical Doctors, Pharmacists and Nurses.

She stated the items include assorted surgical instruments, Incubators with oxygen, and other life-supporting equipment.

Ms. Ayittey recalled that the Brong-Ahafo Region is the home of the much acclaimed Rural Health Training Institute which has been responsible for the production of middle level health personnel over the years.

She pointed out that her Ministry was aware of the challenges facing the Region, regarding health care delivery, including inadequate levels of critical human resource, lack of staff accommodation and generally weak infrastructure. The Ministry, she added, was also aware that some districts in the Region were without hospitals, thus making access to health services very challenging, coupled with the refusal of some health personnel to accept transfer to some districts because of either lack of infrastructure or generally under-development.

“All these have contributed to the relatively weak performance of this region”, she noted.

The Minister explained the meeting with the stakeholders would enable the Ministry to get a better understanding of the issues so that the Government and the Ministry could make plan for the medium term, be better informed about those challenges and also be able to prioritize some of them in the Ministry’s overall plans.

Ms Ayittey therefore requested the Assemblies in the region, traditional rulers and other stakeholders to support the Community-Based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) programme, saying “This is the only way we can improve access to basic health services”.

She called on people in the region to redouble their efforts in supporting the various communities that had been demarcated to be provided with needed human resource to make them functional.

“I am told that only 100 out of the 617 zones have CHPS compounds. It will be a great gift to our communities if all the zones are made functional”, she said and promised her Ministry would continue to work hard to ensure that the necessary logistics were provided to newly constructed CHPS compounds.

Justice Samuel Adjei, Deputy Regional Minister, said since the health of a nation was the basis of its wealth, there was the need for all to play his/her unique role effectively and efficiently in promoting sustainable socio-economic development of the country.

Dr. Timothy Letsa, the Regional Director of Health Services in an overview stated the Region had 29 Hospitals, 83 Health Centers, 104 Clinics and 42 private maternity homes with 617 demarcated CHPS zones with 307 functional and 100 CHPS compounds.

Dr. Letsa mentioned priorities of the Region, saying in strengthening governance and improve efficiency and effectiveness, some of them included provision of technical support visit to health care facilities, strengthening monitoring and supervision and training of Health Managers in leadership.