A new surgical theater block was on Tuesday handed over to the management of St. Anne’s Polyclinic at Tagadzi in the North Tongu district of the Volta region.
Christened the John Evans Atta Mills surgical theatre, the facility has two operating rooms (a major theatre and minor theatre), two recovery wards, doctors’ office, nurses’ room, neonatal ICU, sterile store, washrooms, OPD and autoclave room.
Speaking at the inauguration, Member of Parliament (MP) for North Tongu, Samuel Okudjeto Ablakwa, said his office in partnership with a Kentucky-based NGO Overseas had spent over $240,000 to fully equip and furnish the surgical theatre.
The items include Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), Pulse Oximetres, Defribillators, Ambu bags, arm and leg splints, ECG electrodes, anaesthesia circuits, ultrasound machine, spinal needles, syringes, gynae beds and other equipment.
Mr Ablakwa told a gathering of chiefs, the people and staff of the polyclinic that his intervention stemmed from a Spanish-based NGO, Manos Unidas, which was committed to equip the theatre before agreeing to fund the construction of the 80,000 Euros surgical block such that it would not become a white elephant after construction.
According to Mr Ablakwa, the facility would provide immediate health care to the people of Juapong, Torgorme, Volo, Battor Torgodo, Fodzoku, Dorfor, Mepe Torgodo and other adjoining communities.
He expressed profound appreciation to the traditional authorities for releasing land for the project, the Catholic Church, Manos Unidas, Supplies Overseas that provided the medical equipment, as well as his wife and 10-year-old daughter who provided furnishing and paintings respectively for the facility.
Giving a background to the project, the Public Health Physician of the Keta Akatsi Catholic Diocese, Dr Mamoduo Cham, explained that the National Catholic Health Services’ third policy objective was to improve the quality of and access to health services, for which the St. Anne’s Polyclinic was birthed at Tagadzi in June 2015.
According to him, a profile of the North Tongu district by the Keta Akatsi Catholic Diocese in 2017 identified access to healthcare as a major challenge in the district.
He stated that the district was divided into two unequal parts by the Volta River.
The southern part with a population of about 30,000 people, he said, had the Battor Catholic Hospital serving it, while the northern part inhabited by about 70,000 people did not have access to emergency medical care.
The plaque of the John Evans Atta Mills Surgical Theatre was unveiled by the 2020 running mate of the National Democratic Congress, Prof. Naana Opoku Agyeman, Catholic Bishop of Keta Akatsi, Bishop Gabriel Kumordzie, former speaker of Parliament, Edward Doe Adjaho.
FROM KEN AFEDZI, TAGADZI
