Tema, Greater Accra Region, September 5, 2019//-MTN Ghana’s humanitarian intervention has contributed significantly to the drastic reduction of maternal mortality rates in the Tema metropolis of the Greater Accra Region.
This follows the telecom company’s handing over of a fully furnished maternity block to the Tema General Hospital, a year ago.
The Principal Nursing Officer in-charge of the Labour Ward at the Tema General Hospital, Madam Joana Boakye disclosed this when officials of MTN Ghana paid a visit to the hospital.
She said between January to June 2019, maternal mortality cases in the hospital had reduced significantly to eight (8) deaths compared with 13 deaths within the same period last year.
Madam Boakye however noted that previously maternal mortality cases in the hospital were too scary hitting over 50s in half years.
Out of the thousand deliveries, she was confident that by the close of the year 2019, the cases would further drop to the lowest number.
The Obstetrician and Gynaecologist of the Tema General Hospital, Dr Sylvia Deganu added that waiting time of expectant mothers who visited the hospital had reduced to zero since they moved into the state-of-the-art maternity ward.
“You can see that some of the beds are empty” as she led a team of doctors and nurses to conduct Samuel Koranteng, Corporate Service Executive of MTN Ghana and Executive Director of the MTN Ghana Foundation and his staff around the ward.
Previously, some expectant mothers used to wait for three to five days before they could get beds to deliver, Dr Deganu said.
The ward has improved the health of the newborn babies and their mothers to due the proper ventilation of the “magnificent build MTN handed over to us a year ago”, she explained.
Not only the structure but the equipment also help to improve deliveries as well as improving expectant mother visits to the hospital, she stated.
Dr Deganu and her colleagues at the hospital thanked MTN Ghana for coming to bright the lives of the newborn babies, expectant and nursing mothers in the Tema metropolis.
Dr Deganu revealed that the maternity ward of the hospital is the second best after the newly built Ridge Hospital in Accra which is renamed as the Greater Accra Regional Hospital.
Some nursing mothers including Madama Fatahiya Gariba at the time of the visit to the maternity ward also thanked MTN Ghana for enabling them to deliver safely.
The Tema General Hospital is the third largest in Ghana after Komfo Anokye and Korle Bu teaching hospitals. As regards deliveries in 2017 alone, the hospital delivered over 7,000 babies.
Records indicate that over 22,261 pregnant women visited the hospital in 2017 and this is why the previous maternity ward with 10 beds could not cater for the increasing number of patients who came to the hospital.
Samuel Koranteng, Corporate Service Executive of MTN Ghana and Executive Director of the MTN Ghana Foundation, said: “From the look of things, the ward is being taken good care of by the management of the hospital. We are grateful to them”.
“We are also happy that medical facility is imparting lives”.
The genesis of the plush maternity block
Mr Koranteng noted: “MTN Ghana Foundation’s decision to build the maternity block for the Tema General Hospital was triggered by media reports which highlighted the struggle that hospitals like Tema General Hospital face”.
The Foundation team, he said subsequently followed up and confirmed the need with the hospital authorities after which a proposal was submitted to the MTN Ghana Foundation board for consideration.
The project finally commenced on the 9th November 2016 and in the space of one and half years, the facility was completed and handed over to the hospital authorities on 20th July 2018.
The telecoms company through its MTN Ghana Foundation built the plush maternity block from scratch at the cost of about 5.5 million Ghana cedis. It is expected to benefit over 22,000 women in Tema and its environs annually.
The state-of-the-art maternity facility which was one of the legacy projects to commemorate MTN Ghana’s 20th anniversary, comprised a 40-bed first stage ward, a bed lying-in ward, delivery beds, one theatre, two consulting rooms, two doctors’ offices, nurse office, nurse station and changing rooms, kitchen, among others.
African Eye Report
