MTN Ghana has constructed and handed over a GH¢5.5 million ultra-modern maternity block to the authorities of the Tema General Hospital as part of activities to mark its 20th anniversary.

The 40-bed maternity block comprises a 20-bed first-stage ward, and another 20-bed lying ward with one theatre.

The facility also has a seven-bed monitoring and recovery ward, nurses’ station and changing rooms, sluice rooms, a pantry and store, two consultation rooms, two doctors’ offices and restrooms, a nurses’ office and restroom.

The edifice comes with equipment including an anaesthesia machine, diathermy machine, incubator, baby cot, patient monitors, infusion pump, and radiant warmer.

The Chief Executive Officer of MTN Ghana, Mr Selorm Adadevoh, said the project was necessitated by a news item which highlighted the struggle faced by the hospital to raise funds to complete its maternity ward.

He said MTN Ghana Foundation had invested over 13 million dollars in building maternity blocks, schools, libraries and Information Communication Technology Centres around the country in the last 10 years.

Mr Adadevoh said the facility is expected to help reduce the pressure on existing facilities at the hospital, as a result of the increasing population.

With the availability of the new maternity block, the Principal Nursing Officer of the Unit Labour Ward, Joana Boakye, said the challenges associated with childbirth will be a thing of the past.