KATH Takes Delivery Of 2 Oxygen Plants

The Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (kATH)has been given some respite after procuring two oxygen plants to replace the over 20 year-old obsolete one which should have been decommissioned 10 years ago.

The GH¢5.4 million plants are expected to be delivered from the USA by the end of the year and installed by the end of next month.

The Chief Executive Officer of KATH, Dr Oheneba Owusu-Danso, announced at a fund raising gala and dinner night to mobilise GH¢120 million within the next five years to retool and upgrade its facilities.

The night brought together some of the country's industrial bigwigs and financial moguls.

Amount

More than GH¢5 million was raised in cash and pledges on the night as the hospital rolled out three platforms through Fidelity, Ecobank and the Ghana Commercial Banks to allow for people to lend a helping hand.

Mr Kwaku Oteng of Angel Group of companies pledged to raise GH¢500,000 towards the acquisition of ventilators for the intensive care unit, while Stanbic Bank (GH¢50,000), K. Badu Agro Chemicals (GH¢1 million) were some of the donors.

An 11-member board of trustees including Dr K.K. Sarpong, the CEO of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation, and Mr Kwabena Kesse of Kesben Group of companies will manage the fund.

Dr Owusu-Danso said the absence of functional oxygen plant had drained the hospital financially over the years and had stalled major treatment and activities.

He expressed delight in the breakthrough secured through its own internally-generated funds under the board's, "operational reforms."

He said KATH, Ghana's second biggest referral teaching hospital, covering about eight out of the 10 regions of Ghana and welcoming patients across the subregion, still needed centres for cardiothoraxic surgery, plastic and reconstructive surgery, transplant surgery, among others.

The CEO of the hospital revealed that the hospital needed immediate expansion and upgrading because from a barely 100 outpatient cases in the 1950s the hospital now attended to an average of 1,000 OPD cases a day, the highest in the country, in the same facility.

Beyond that, it conducts about 9,000 deliveries and 20,000 surgeries a year, compounding the problems.

He commended government for doing its bit but said the situation called for a national attention.

The First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Joe Osei Owusu, said governments pretended to be capable of solving everything which was not possible realistically.

He said there was a limit to government's resources and what it could do but added that together with the private sector and individuals a lot could be achieved.

The First Deputy Speaker of Parliament called for all hands to be on deck to make KATH great again.

About KATH

KATH was established in 1955 and constructed by a British firm called Gee Walker and Slater.

It is popularly referred to us Gee by the locals perhaps after the British construction firm and named after the Ashanti's most powerful traditional priest, Okomfo Anokye.