The Presbyterian Church of Ghana has inaugurated a hospital facility at Yorogo in the Bolgatanga Municipality of the Upper East Region.
The hospital is expected to significantly improve access to healthcare for residents in the municipality and neighbouring districts.
The new facility, which has evolved from the Presbyterian Regional Eye Centre, now provides a wide range of services including maternity care, surgical operations, inpatient care and laboratory services, transforming it from a specialised eye centre into a comprehensive healthcare institution.
The facility, inaugurated last Tuesday, was realised through a counterpart funding arrangement between the Presbyterian Health Service and its long-standing development partners, Friends of Bawku and Wilde Ganzen, based in the Netherlands, who contributed €150,000 towards the construction and equipping of the facility.
The Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, the Rt Rev. Dr Abraham Nana Opare Kwakye, who inaugurated the facility, said the decision to expand the centre’s services was informed by the growing healthcare needs of patients visiting the facility.
He noted that although the centre had played a critical role in providing specialised eye care services to residents in the region, many patients who sought treatment at the facility often presented other health complications which could not be managed at the centre.
“We discovered that people came here not only with eye problems but also with other related health issues, and there was a need to provide general medical care alongside the eye services,” he said.
According to him, adding a modern operating theatre and a maternity block would enable the facility to perform both eye surgeries and general surgical procedures, while also providing maternal and neonatal healthcare services to women and children in the area.
Health needs
The Coordinator and Administrator of the facility, Peter Abugri, said patients who reported such illnesses often had to be referred to other health facilities in Bolgatanga or Bongo, a situation that created inconvenience and delays in accessing care, particularly for vulnerable groups such as pregnant women, children and the elderly.
Mr Abugri said the new theatre block contained two operating theatres – one dedicated to eye surgeries and the other for general surgical procedures.
He added that the maternity block included a labour ward, delivery room, lying-in ward and a neonatal intensive care unit to provide specialised care for premature and vulnerable newborn babies.
Dr Dennis Daliri, the acting General Manager of the Presbyterian Health Services–North, said the facility served a catchment population of more than 50,000 people from the Bolgatanga Municipality, Bongo District and several surrounding communities.
He noted that the transformation of the centre into a more comprehensive health facility formed part of efforts to improve healthcare access and strengthen service delivery in the region.
Naba Kosomo Legbe Serum-Tinganbila – Legbe Goo, Chief of Yorogo, commended the Presbyterian Church for its continuous contribution to healthcare development in the community.
Source:
www.graphic.com.gh
