A couple, Douglas and Jackie Chikohora have donated medical equipment to the War Memorial Hospital in Navrongo in the Upper East region to help improve health delivery. The items include a steam autoclave, an incubator, two electric theatre beds, a cardiac monitor, 5 pulse oximeters, and BP monitors.
Mrs. Jackie Chikohora, a native of the Kassena-Nankana municipality but married to the Chikohoras said the deplorable nature of the hospital was brought to their attention when she came home in March this year to introduce her husband to the family in Navrongo.
“During the visit, we toured the hospital and noticed that the theatre was not in good condition and that touched my husband’s heart. So, when we returned, my husband tasked me to research the list of equipment the doctor of the hospital had given us. So, we paid the manufacturer, and the equipment were shipped to Tema, cleared, and brought to Navrongo.”
The couple was not around when the equipment were presented to the hospital and have now decided to ascertain how the hospital is putting the items to good use when they spoke A1 Radio
Going forward, she said she set up a fundraiser platform and a second incubator has been procured and will be donated to the neonatal unit of the hospital. While appealing for support from benevolent persons to donate towards improving health delivery at the War Memorial Hospital, Mrs. Chikohora entreated the management of the hospital to take good care of the items.
The Chikohoras’ donation has been greatly appreciated by the staff and management of the War Memorial Hospital. Dr. Eric Wedam, the Medical Superintendent of the hospital, expressed his gratitude for the donation, stating that it will significantly improve the quality of healthcare services provided by the hospital.
“Initially, what happened was that you could try to perform an operation on a woman, a caesarean section, but because of the ineffectiveness of the control system of the theatre bed, the patient may lie flat but suddenly, the anaesthesia may swing off. The state in which our steam autoclave was and the way it looked, didn’t benefit us. With the received of these items, you can attest that the practice of medicine has improved”
Dr. Wedam said the steam autoclave is a vital piece of equipment in a hospital setting, as it is used to sterilise medical instruments and equipment to ensure that patients are not put at risk of infection during medical procedures.
Hitherto the donation of an incubator from the Chikohoras, the War Memorial Hospital had only a single functional incubator and sometimes had to put two or more neonates in a single incubator instead of one per health standard.
As a result, the Medical Superintendent, Dr. Wedam said the situation then, exposed the neonates to cross infection in the neonatal intensive care unit, “but with the addition of this incubator, I am sure there will be a drop of cross infection in the next indicators”
Source: A1Radioonline.com|101.1Mhz|Joshua Asaah|Navrongo|Ghana
