Endwells Pharmacy, pharmaceutical retail and wholesale company in the Upper East Region has redeemed its pledge of Ghc25,000 towards the establishment of a hemodialysis centre.
“From the launch day up until now, and based on the records I got from our director of finance at the hospital, as of yesterday [Friday, April 7, 2023], the statement they had from the bank, they had received donations and contributions to the tune of about Ghc80,000. The biggest individual pledge that was done by Endswell Pharmacy, which was Ghc25,000 has been redeemed.”
Dr. Emmanual Akatibo, the lead convenor for the project, disclosed this Mark Smith when he spoke on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East Show recently.
It will be recalled that at a ceremony to raise money for the building of a hemodialysis centre at the Upper East Regional Hospital, more than Ghc14,000 in cash was accumulated. Several attendees also made pledges totaling Ghc114,000 at the occasion.
“From the figures that I am getting, for cash, they got about Ghc14,000 then the pledges was about Ghc114,000. There were some other pledges that would come our way but we are holding on to those for some clarification.”
The Upper East Regional Minister, on behalf of the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council and all MDCEs in the Upper East Region, pledged a total of Ghc80,000. Ends Well Pharmacy, a leading pharmaceutical dispensing and distribution company in the region, also committed Ghc25,000 towards the establishment of the facility. Additionally, many traditional, religious, and political leaders committed various sums to the establishment of the facility.
The lead advocate for the establishment of the facility, Dr. Emmanuel Akatibo, was overwhelmed by the show of support when he spoke on the Day Break Upper East Show, Friday, March 4, 2023.
“By God’s Grace, we had the durbar done and had the fundraising done. It was really a successful one. I was so elated and happy that our father, the Tongoraan, accepted the invitation to chair the programme. The regional minister was also there, along with most of the MDCEs. We also had the clergy there. We also had representatives of various institutions and individuals. It was a very successful programme. It was the beginning of the fundraising. We would continue to ensure that this comes to fruition,” he said.
Physician Specialist at the Upper East Regional Hospital, Emmanuel Akatibo, intensified his demand for the establishment of a dialysis centre in Bolgatanga, the Upper East Regional capital.
According to Mr. Akatibo, it has become almost routine for people in need of renal replacement therapy to pay exorbitant fees to be transported outside of the region for care. For others who may not afford the attendant costs, they lose their lives.
In a rather passionate post on his Facebook page, Mr. Akatibo made his case for the establishment of such a centre at the Upper East Regional Hospital.
See full post below
My name is Emmanuel Akatibo, a Physician Specialist at the Bolgatanga Regional Hospital.
This is the story of the faith of patients who suffer from kidney failure and need renal replacement therapy in the form of haemodialysis in the region.
Since I started working in the regional hospital in March 2022 as the only Physician Specialist – The department of internal medicine has recorded over 30 kidney failure cases that needed dialysis, either as a long term renal replacement therapy or a short course of dialysis to allow time for the kidneys to recover.
Unfortunately, this service is not available at the regional hospital which serves as the main referral centre for the whole of Upper East, parts of North East, Burkina Faso and Togo. Out of those who had end stage kidney failure and needed long-term haemodialysis, only a few could afford to travel to Tamale the nearest centre for dialysis. This didn’t come easy for them at all, so some dropped along the way because they couldn’t keep up. Aside the cost of the dialysis and medications which is expensive, these patients had to travel 2-to-3 times a week with a caregiver to Tamale for the dialysis, this puts extra burden on their families because some just had to stop working in order to be able to travel almost every other day for dialysis.
Due to the inconveniences and extra financial burden on them, some couldn’t maintain it and died along the way, those who could had to reduce the recommended 3 times a week dialysis to either once a week or once every two weeks. This worsened most of their conditions and affected their quality of life.
Others had to entirely relocate with their families to Tamale, Kumasi, and Accra in order to have easy access to dialysis centres. 15 out of those who were visiting Tamale for regular dialysis in 2022 died because they couldn’t afford to travel almost every other day for dialysis.
For those who developed Acute kidney injury(AKI) which has the potential to reverse to normal and needed dialysis support for the kidneys to recover died because the couldn’t afford to travel to Tamale for such service. Most of these patients were young adults in their prime age, bread winners of their families who probably just needed 2-to-4 dialysis sessions to recover from the AKI but we just had to watch helplessly.
It’s on this background that the hospital started the awareness creation and sensitization of the public on kidney diseases for prevention, early detection and treatment to prevent progression and at the same time the campaign to help it set up a haemodialysis centre for the region.
It is capital intensive and beyond the capacity of the hospital to fund it alone and would therefore need the support of individuals, corporate Ghana and all well meaning sons and daughters of the region to contribute to this course in which ever form.
It’s refreshing to know that almost all the Regions have dialysis centres with the exception of Upper East and the newly created regions. We have our challenges as a region but I think this project will serve the interest of the entire region irrespective of where you belong to. I therefore call on you to join the campaign.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
