From Ernest Best Anane
Telecommunications giant Mobile Telecommunication Network (MTN), through its MTN Foundation-Ghana, has constructed and commissioned a GH¢250,000 Maternal/Theatre for the Fomena Health Centre.
Mr. James Bukari Basintale, General Manager, Northern Business District, said at the commissioning that the gesture was to help support the training of nursing students at the Fomena Community Nursing Training School.
The facility, he said, would afford the students of the Nursing Training School with practical experience in the courses being pursued.
He said the MTN was extremely proud of the investment, adding that it was heartwarming to note that the theatre, and the lying-in ward provided by MTN Ghana Foundation, is expected to serve thousands of people living in and around the Adansi North District.
The General Manager disclosed that over GH¢11,000,000 had been invested on various community development projects in the areas of health, education, and recently, economic empowerment.
He announced further that the MTN Foundation had also donated health equipment to the Kokuom Health Center, and an incubator to the neonatal unit of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Hospital, adding that the Foundation would soon distribute incubators to selected health institutions across the country.
He bemoaned the current 315 per 100,000 live births fact, which makes the Ashanti Region the leader statistically, as far as maternal deaths in Ghana were concerned, and said with less than three years to achieving the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target for improved maternal health, it was imperative that all stakeholders join efforts to improve the situation.
He expressed the hope that the provision of the infrastructure would to help reduce maternal mortality, increase access to primary healthcare, and also help Ghana attain the Millennium Development Goals.
Ms. Gertrude Mantey, District Health Director of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), said the center was almost at the hospital status, as it can boast of an out-patients-department (OPD), and a dispensary disease control laboratory, and hoped that the Maternity/Theatre Ward would also help reduce maternal deaths.
She indicated that the centre also required a doctor’s bungalow, nurses’ quarters, and an ambulance for effective and efficient healthcare delivery.
Ms. Mantey appealed to the government and all stakeholders to help provide a fence wall around the facility.
Baffour Kyei II, Gyasehene of Fomena, who represented Nana Okofo Sobin-Kai II, Acting President of the Adansi Traditional Council, commended MTN Foundation for the kind gesture to help improve the health of the people.
The DCE for Adansi North, Alhaji Madjoub Latif, lauded MTN Foundation’s contribution and efforts at improving the health sector.