A timely donation of critical medical equipment valued at over GH¢830,000 by MODEC and its MV25 charter partners has significantly boosted healthcare delivery at the Assemblies of God Hospital in Saboba, following a devastating fire that destroyed the facility’s children’s ward.
The equipment, officially handed over recently, included hospital beds and cots for maternity and paediatric wards, anaesthesia machines, modern delivery tables, nebuliser machines and other essential devices aimed at strengthening maternal and child healthcare services.
Just two days after the donation, an accidental fire gutted the hospital’s children’s ward, causing extensive damage. Fortunately, all patients and staff were safely evacuated without injuries.
The Assemblies of God Hospital, a 134-bed missionary facility, serves as the main referral centre for the Saboba District and provides health care to more than 120,000 people, including residents of neighbouring districts and cross-border communities.
In recent times, the hospital had been grappling with shortages of key maternal and child health equipment, placing significant strain on service delivery.
Significant contribution
The Executive Director of AG Care-Ghana, Ernest Asigri, described the donation as the single largest private contribution the hospital had received, underscoring its importance to the facility.
He revealed that all the donated beds had been immediately allocated to a temporary children’s ward established after the fire, providing urgent relief to the most affected unit.
He stressed that the recent events at the hospital underscored two important truths about how companies and donors significantly support health care in Ghana’s rural areas.
“Firstly, strategic donations and contributions provide indispensable resources to hardworking medical teams serving often in under-resourced facilities and stretched to their limits.
Secondly the longevity of the value (of contributions) depends on systems that enable their proper use and maintenance,” he explained.
Mr Asigri further stated that the ultimate value of the donation would be determined by strong operational and maintenance systems that ensure these critical resources were not rendered obsolete.
Consistent support
He recalled that the MODEC and its MV25 partners were not strangers to sustained engagement in the country’s health sector.
He said their substantial support for Tropical Disease Research at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) in the amount of USD 2.1 million since 2018, through collaboration with the Scientific Tokyo (formerly Tokyo Medical and Dental University), and their essential support of over USD 600,000 to four testing centres (KCCR, TVL, NPHRL and NMIMR) during Ghana’s COVID-19 response, established a pattern of significant support and long-term engagement.
Mr Asigri further stated that hospital’s experience was a powerful example of how strategic corporate social investment could stabilise a critical rural health frontline institution during its most vulnerable moment.
He said it emphasised the necessary role of private-sector partnership in augmenting rural hospital budgets.
“By providing quality equipment to a facility that was already demonstrating remarkable resilience under pressure, MODEC and its MV25 charter partners have enhanced the hospital’s clinical capacity.
As these new assets are integrated into the hospital’s daily operations, they stand as a reminder of how private-sector collaboration can transform a moment of crisis into a source of better care for the community,” he added.
Source:
www.graphic.com.gh