Ghana’s premier hospital, the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) has announced plans of constructing a modern mortuary under its new strategic plan.
The facility, expected to take off in February next year, when completed would take at most 1,500 bodies. Currently the mortuary’s capacity is 600.
The mortuary, which would provide a one-stop-shop for all funeral activities would also have an attached training institution for undertakers and mortuary attendants, among other individuals working within the field to improve customer care.
Chief Executive Officer of the KBTH, Dr Daniel Asare, at a media interaction in Accra yesterday explained that the “Centenary Strategic Plan” formed part of activities in the lead up to the hospital’s 100th anniversary in 2023.
He said the plan seeks to position Korle Bu as a world class health facility and the most preferred choice of care for patients within the West African sub region.
Dr Asare outlined a number of projects the hospital was undertaking in its transformation agenda, including digitising its operations, building of additional theatre and surgical wards, installing new medical equipment as well as improving human resource capacity of KBTH.
The CEO pointed out that the paperless healthcare services had been successfully introduced and being implemented at the Korle-Bu Polyclinic and Family Medicine Unit, an intervention that had helped reduce waiting time and improved out-patient attendance.
“Our revenue has now tripled since we began the paperless system and by 2020 all departments of KBTH would have been covered under the digitisation agenda,” he stated.
On the issue of no-bed syndrome that often plagued the hospital, Dr Asare said a new comprehensive bed management system had been rolled out to ensure that patients do not stay in emergency wards beyond 48 hours without being transferred to appropriate wards to make room for new patients.
“We are establishing a new Accident and Emergency laboratory fitted with a new digital x-ray machine to speed up request for x-ray examination,” he added.
The CEO mentioned clinical achievements made by the hospital including kidney and renal transplantations, vascular and plastic surgeries, among other medical breakthrough undertaken by KBTH.
Dr Asare appealed to other health facilities, particularly the private ones to communicate with the KBTH for smooth transfer of patients to reduce death toll at KBTH.
He also pleaded with the Ministry of Health to, as a matter of urgency, establish a “hospice for terminally-ill patients to prevent the dumping of patients” at the facility.
BY ABIGAIL ANNOH