Day: October 1, 2023

The Vice-President of Angola Esperança da Costa is due to re-inaugurate Monday, the Neves Bendinha Burn Hospital located in Luanda, after being given a facelift that enabled the expansion of the premises.

With the expansion, the hospital will have 93 new beds to accommodate patients, three laboratories, an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and telemedicine.

According to a note that reached ANGOP, burn patients, who had been treated and those admitted to a municipal hospital will begin to be transferred to Neves Bendinha burn hospital from October 3.

The facelift enabled the Block 1 to be equipped with a state-of-the-art laboratory, sterilization, a drug store with specific drugs for burns and others in common use and an 81-seat auditorium and administrative areas.

The Block 2 has been equipped with a library and meeting room with video conference, while Block 3 provides maintenance and supportive services.

The ICU has been equipped with 13 beds, three isolation beds for infectious diseases. The laboratory service has three rooms, two for clinical analysis (internal and external) and one for microbiology.

President João Lourenço had instructed the repair and expansion of the burn hospital based on the allocation of financial resources from the oil bonus for this purpose, this occurred after he leant about the advanced state of decay the hospital was found during a visit he paid in 2018.

Neves Bendinha Burn Hospital is a reference health unit in the country, whose mission is to provide humanized services to burn patients

Source: Angola Press News Agency

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo says the country’s vision of becoming the preferred destination for medical care in West Africa by 2030 is on course.

He said the country was working successfully towards that goal with a substantial investment to strengthen health systems performance, infrastructural growth and access to quality healthcare.

President Nana Akufo-Addo, inaugurating the St. Michael’s Specialist Hospital (SMSH), at Lapaz, Accra, said the nation’s health target had been buoyed by the progress of work on the ‘Agenda 111’ initiative.

The initiative is to provide 100-bed standard district hospitals with accommodation for doctors and nurses, construction of new regional hospitals for the six newly-created regions as well as two new psychiatric hospitals.

Giving a breakdown of the percentage of work done so far, the President hinted that the average completion rate of the 89 ongoing projects was 52 per cent, with work on some of the sites being 70 to 80 per cent complete.

These comprise 86 district hospitals, two regional psychiatric hospitals and the Western Regional Hospital.

The President lauded the founder of the Specialist Hospital, Mr. Michael Banahene, for his vision and complementing the Government’s efforts at achieving universal health coverage.

The Hospital is a multidisciplinary state-of-the-art facility providing patient-centred healthcare services, including surgery.

It deals with plastic and neurosurgery, cardiology and mental health consultations, surgical care, paediatrics, dental and interventional cardiology care, antenatal and delivery care, amongst others.

‘Beyond the building of these new healthcare facilities, my vision is to help our country become the Centre of Excellence in medical care in West Africa by 2030,’ the President assured.

The relevance of the country’s vision, he said, was reinforced by the fact that the sub-Region was projected to have a population of half a billion people by the said year.

Consequently, the authorities were leveraging Ghana’s status as the most peaceful country in the Region to upgrade its health facilities and human resource development, he stressed.

The agenda is to derive maximum benefits from the health sector for accelerated economic growth.

‘The first wealth is health. Good health is fundamental to all we do and hope to do,’ President Nana Akufo-Addo noted.

He reiterated the Government’s commitment to working with the private sector in achieving the nation’s health goals, especially as enshrined in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Former President John Agyekum Kufuor , described the SMSH project as monumental, and commended the authorities for the initiative.

Mr. Banahene, the Founder, said achieving universal health coverage was a shared responsibility, and urged the Government to work effectively with the private sector to achieve that goal.

Source: Ghana News Agency