Samuel Okudjeto Ablakwa, Member of Parliament (MP) for North Tongu, has fully equipped a new surgical theatre block of St. Anne’s Polyclinic named after JEA Mills at Tagadzi in the North Tongu District of the Volta Region.
The theatre has two operating rooms – a major theatre and a minor theatre – two recovery wards, a doctors’ office, a nurses’ room, a neonatal ICU, a sterile store, washrooms, OPD and an autoclave room.
And among the medical equipment the MP supplied to the facility are Personal Protective Equipment, Pulse Oximeters, Defribillators, Ambu bags, arm and leg splints, ECG electrodes, anaesthesia circuits, gynae beds, ultrasound machine, spinal needles and syringes.
Samuel Okudjeto Ablakwa, at a gathering of traditional and religious leaders, medical staff and residents at the polyclinic at Tagadzi to present the items, said his office, in partnership with Supplies Overseas, a Kentucky-based NGO, spent over US$240,000 to fully equip and furnish the surgical theatre.
He said he needed to intervene with the equipment after a Spanish-based NGO, Manos Unidas, requested a commitment from the polyclinic to equip the theatre before agreeing to fund the construction of the 80,000 Euros surgical block.
“And so, as an MP, when the management of the polyclinic put this before me, I welcomed the challenge, and I am glad my partners in the USA came in to help us with more than enough of the items to equip the theatre,” he explained.
The theatre would provide immediate health care to the people of Juapong, Torgorme, Volo, Battor Torgodo, Fodzoku, Dorfor, Mepe Torgodo and other adjoining communities.
The MP thanked the traditional authorities for releasing land for the project, the Catholic Church for agreeing to name the facility after the late President John Evans Atta Mills, Manos Unidas for the funding of the facility, Supplies Overseas for providing the medical equipment, and his wife and 10-year-old daughter, who provided furnishing and paintings respectively for the facility.
The plaque of the John Evans Atta Mills Surgical Theater was unveiled by the 2020 running mate of the National Democratic Congress, Professor Naana Jane Opoku Agyeman, the Catholic Bishop of Keta Akatsi, Bishop Gabriel Kumordzie, and a former Speaker of Parliament, Edward Doe Adjaho.
Other health facilities that benefited from the MP’s medical equipment included the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, the Peki Government Hospital, the Battor Catholic Hospital, Ketu South Municipal Hospital, Adidome Hospital, Ho Teaching Hospital, Richard Novati Catholic Hospital, Komenda Hospital, Sogakofe District Hospital and about 10 other health centres.
Background
The Public Health Physician of the Keta Akatsi Catholic Diocese, Dr. Mamoduo Cham, explained that the National Catholic Health Service’s third policy objective was to improve the quality and access to health services, for which 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 unique health challenges concerning healthcare access. He stated that the district has been divided into two unequal parts by the Volta River: the southern part with a population of about 30,000 has the Battor Catholic Hospital serving the people, while the northern part, inhabited by about 70,000 people, did not have access to emergency medical care.
Given the lack of emergency services at the polyclinic, Dr. Cham said emergencies, including pregnant women, had to cross the river at night to Battor or be referred to Akosombo, the Peki Government Hospital, Akuse or Adidome for a safe Caesarian section.
He stated that without the intervention of Mr Ablakwa, the funds for the construction would not have been obtained because Manos Unidas asked for the commitment to equip the theatre before agreeing to fund the construction.He said while waiting for the completion of the theatre, another German NGO, 42 Africa, provided an ambulance to refer patients safely and the MP assisted the Polyclinic to get a tax waiver to import the vehicle.
