The Member of Parliament (MP) for the North Tongu constituency, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has presented assorted modern medical equipment to the Mepe Health Centre.
The facility took delivery of the equipment, which included anesthesia machines, autoclave, infant incubator and infant warmers, oxygen concentrator, pulse oximeter and consumables such as oxygen, syringes, drapes and general surgery.
Addressing the ceremony to handover the equipment, Mr Ablakwa said he would work very hard with his partners, both in Ghana and abroad, to get the medical centre expanded to a hospital status, to reduce pressure on the Battor Catholic Hospital, one of the most visited mission hospitals in Ghana.
The MP paid tribute to SOS International, USA, his partners, for the long-standing relationship between them.
“The medical equipment here cost US$1.2 million but my partners asked me to pay US$4,500 and bear the shipping cost. SOS International has been very supportive of my course and this is the way to go.
It’s been a great partnership between us,” he said.
In conclusion, he said, whilst the Mepe Health Centre awaits his move for the expansion and subsequent upgrading to hospital status, adjourning health facilities would take delivery of some of the equipment.
The Mepe Health Centre has a skeletal medical staff of six to about 20,000 population, however, the Health Director for North Tongu, Kofi Ziga, expressed confidence that with the equipment donated, medical personnel maynow accept posting to the facility, to reduce the patient to health personnel ratio.
“The Area is lucky to have an MP who is working very hard to get this facility expanded and upgraded to a hospital status, and seeing these pieces of medical equipment he has delivered, I won’t be surprised should the Mepe Health Centre see the needed expansion for the upgrading in the shortest possible time,” Kofi Ziga said.
The Mepe Health Centre is the only public medical facility in the Traditional Area. It is close to the ‘Safe Alternative Housing’ unit, another initiative by the MP, at Battor, where about 12,000 residents were displaced by the September-November 2023 Akosombo Dam spillage.
Kofi Ziga, the Health Director, celebrated the only midwife of the Mepe Health Centre for the zero mortality rate at the health facility.
The only midwife of the facility built by the Citi FM Foundation and Ghana Chamber of Mines some couple of months after the Akosombo Dam spillage by the Volta River Authority (VRA) in the embers of 2023, has recorded 15 successful deliveries in the last three months when the centre was opened to the public.
“This is a remarkable feat to the only midwife of the Mepe Health Centre. Her commitment to her profession and the people of Mepe is outstanding, and I stand here today to salute her on behalf of the Mepe Traditional Area,” Mr Ziga announced at a public gathering of the Traditional Area where the North Tongu MP donated the medical items.
