MARY THERESA HOSPITAL GETS GYNAECOLOGIST (PAGE 20)

THE Mary Theresa Catholic Hospital at Dodi-Papase in the Kadjebi District has now got a gynaecologist, the only one in the northern part of the Volta Region.
The hospital was able to get the specialist due to the commitment of the management and staff to ensure that the hospital becomes the best in terms of obstetrics and gynaecology in that part of the region.
At the first-ever Patron Saints Day at the hospital, the Hospital Administrator, Mr Stannard Issah Mahama, said to achieve its objective of excellent health care, the hospital has for the past five years sponsored a number of students in the various tertiary institutions and also provided infrastructural facilities.
He mentioned some of the facilities as the construction of four staff bungalows, and the renovation of the adult ward with funding from the government and the laboratory with financial assistance from the German Rotary Volunteer Doctors.
Mr Mahama said a mortuary project financed from the hospital’s internally generated funds (IGF) had reached the lintel level and was expected to be completed by December, this year.
He said the biggest challenges that were seriously affecting the hospital’s progress were transportation and telecommunication.
Mr Mahama said one of the facility’s problems was human resource as it had lost some of the best hands through deaths, resignation or transfers.
He was, however, happy to announce that through the IGF the hospital was training 18 student nurses at the various nurses training institutions in the country.
According to Mr Mahama, the hospital would be 50 years in five years’ time so the management was planning feverishly to launch it.
The Medical Officer in charge of the hospital, Dr Christina Tetteh, said between 2007 and the middle of 2008, 23,294 patients attended the hospital out of which 2,462 were admitted.
On HIV/AIDS, out of the 604 patients who were examined in 2007, 84 of them tested positive, adding that 15 TB cases were detected from 2007 to the middle of 2008, three of who died.
The Bishop of the Jasikan Catholic Diocese, Most Reverend Gabriel Akwasi Mantey, who dedicated the statue of Saint Mary Theresa, the Patron-Saint of the hospital, commended the 19 staff for their dedication, and presented various awards to them.
The bishop advised them to adopt a maintenance culture to ensure that facilities at the hospital did not break down frequently.