By: Ewoenam Kpodo | Voltaonlinegh |
Vice Chancellor of University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS), Prof. John Gyapong has appealed to government to resource the new Ho Teaching Hospital (HTH) in terms of massive infrastructure to achieve its ultimate goal of training health professionals for the country.
On Monday, April 29, the Volta Regional Hospital (Trafalgar) was designated as Ho Teaching Hospital to train doctors, pharmacists, nurses and allied health scientists of UHAS, a solely health professional training university established in 2011.
Speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the hospital at the University’s Auditorium, Trafalgar Campus, Prof. Gyapong said though the conversion was a good step, it behooved government to on a certificate of urgency, embark on infrastructure improvement at the hospital befitting of the new status and to make it fit for the purpose for which it was converted.
“There is currently a lot of pressure on us to increase the intake into all our programmes and introduce new ones. Any such move will be contingent on massive infrastructure improvements at the hospital to make it fit for purpose to achieve the ultimate goals of training health professional for the country.”
“There will be the need for the establishment of simulation centres and skills laboratories to enhance training. In the meantime, we intend to work closely with some satellite hospitals to facilitate our training,” he added.
Special Guest of Honour, Agbogbomefia of Asogli, Togbe Afede XIV who was represented by the Warlord of Asogli, Togbe Adzie Lakle Howusu XII commended government for the elevation and called on President of the Republic, Nana Akufo-Addo to release funding to support the upgrading of current facilities at the hospital.
Togbe Howusu said the conversion had brought about the need for a new Volta Regional Hospital to care for the health needs of people in the region and appealed to government to consider facilitating the process.
Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyemang-Manu assured that government would announce a new regional hospital to make quality health care services accessible to the people of the region and neighbouring regions such as Oti and Eastern regions.
Hon. Agyemang-Manu revealed that government was committed to giving the fifth teaching hospital in the country the needed support to become “the premium in innovative tertiary health care delivery, medical education and research” to serve seekers of tertiary health services.
“The Ministry is working towards acquiring funds to expand infrastructure for service delivery including wards, offices, etc. Also, the Ministry is working at getting funding to retool the hospital and acquire new equipment to enhance service delivery such as the CT Scan, Laboratory equipment, Anaesthesia machines, etc and getting the MRI back to operate.”
Volta Regional Minister, Dr. Archibald Yao Letsa expressed hope about the transformation of the hospital which he said would inure to the benefit of the region as it would attract consultants and experts into the region, thus, economic growth.
Dr. Archibald promised management and staff of HTH the readiness of the Regional Coordinating Council to support the hospital into a model teaching hospital in Africa and asked that they played their part in making this dream possible by giving excellent customer care service to their clients.
The ceremony chaired by a medical consultant, Dr. Delanyo Dorvlo had in attendance the acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of HTH, Dr. John Tampuri, Council Chairman, UHAS, Justice Jones Dotse, former deputy regional ministers, Members of Parliaments, teaching hospital CEOS, district chief executives, academicians, health professionals and traditional leaders including the Awoamefia of Anlo, Torgbui Sri III.
Source: www.voltaonlinegh.com
