Carve a niche for yourself - Dr Koku Awoonor charges St. Joseph Hospital

The former Director of Policy, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation of the Ghana Health Service [GHS], Dr Koku Awoonor has charged the St Joseph Catholic Hospital in Nkwanta in the Oti Region to carve a niche for itself to become a Centre for a medical speciality in the country. He said the hospital could among the diseases consider renal diseases care, saying “we know the burden of renal diseases now. We know how many people are suffering renal diseases, needing dialysis at high cost” and that the Hospital’s location is strategic for it. Dr Koku Awoonor who was delivering the keynote address at the 50th Anniversary Celebration of the Nkwanta St Joseph Hospital last Friday, said the hospital in carving that niche for itself needs to re-launch its health promotion efforts against diseases such as Diabetes, Hypertension, Obesity, Cancers, Mental health diseases, Stroke, HIV AIDS, Tuberculosis, Diarrhea diseases, Road traffic accidents which are today killing more people. Recalling his first visit to Nkwanta in 1992, Dr Awoonor said he was there on outreach to support and provide services as that became a weekly feature when he was stationed at ST Mary Theresa Catholic Hospital at Dodi Papase as a Medical Officer but also overseeing Kadjebi as District Medical officer. He recounted the situation back at the time of the scourge of Guinea worm, Measles, Maleria with its associated convulsion, hernia etc where health services had to be delivered in the absence of social amenities like potable water, electricity, motorable roads, accommodation for workers. He said the many nights of critical health services referrals, man hours spent to travel to Ho and Accra for medicines, logistics and supplies, the first emergency surgery undertaken in the OPD consultation room of the St Joseph clinic which was followed by the design and construction of theatre to provide surgical emergency services have yielded positive results. “Today, the improvement we see in many of these conditions including the communicable diseases were due to many of the public health interventions including health promotion, community health education, immunization programs and outreaches - timely treatment of minor ailments in the various communities carried out by St Joesph and others”, Dr Awoonor stated. He said inasmuch as there is improvement in the health of the Ghanaian in the past 50 years, it is also important to reflect on some of the critical indicators, saying life expectancy has increased from 49 years in 1965 to 64years in 2021, under five mortality of 218,000 live births in 1960 has reduced to 47.5 in 2020. Similarly, Dr Koku Awoonor said infant mortality rate has dropped from 77 per 1000 live births in 1988 to 32.8 per 1000 live births in 2020 with neonatal mortality rate dropping from 43 per 1000 live births in 1988 to 25 per 1000 live births in 2017. Maternal mortality is also on a downward trend from 680 per 100,000 live births in 1990 to 308 per 100,000 live births in 2019. He lamented that Ghana’s disease burden has become more complex and that we now have a triple burden disease namely communicable diseases, non-communicable diseases and accidents and injuries all of which pose major havoc to our population. Dr Koku Awoonor who was the former Medical Superintendent as well as the District Director of Health Services for the Nkwanta District explained that, non-communicable diseases today constitute 43% of all age cause mortality in Ghana. Communicable, Maternal, Peri-natal, Nutritional disorders, Cardiovascular diseases, Accidents and Injuries constitute 10%. He commended the Catholic Church, the 2 Missionaries and OLA sisters, for their hard work to bring the hospital to its current status. Dr Koku Awoonor also lauded the efforts of Dr Dela Dovlo [former Director of Human Resource] and Dr Moses Komla Adibo [former Director of Medical Services and former Deputy Minister of Health] both of whom he said played key roles in health services delivery in the Nkwanta area. On his part, the Bishop of the Jasikan Diocese, Most Reverend Bishop Gabriel Mantey advised workers of the Hospital to adopt modern ways of doing things, saying “avoid the enslavement with your past; we have always done it like this and will continue doing it like that, if you are enslaved with your past, consider yourself a dead person.” He commended the Ladies of Apostles for taking up the challenge even in the face of threats such as snake and scorpion bites to build the Hospital. Bishop Mantey singled out for exceptional praise a very old retired staff who was in the crowd, Opanyin Simon Alegbe who he described as partly a general nurse, partly a theatre nurse, partly a messenger and everything during the inception of the Hospital. On his part, Director for Christian Health Association of Ghana [CHAG], Dr Peter K. Yeboah said the country’s resolve to achieve universal health coverage by 2030 calls for partnership to address some existential challenges which require that St Joseph Hospital reposition itself as an elite Hospital with the prospect and potentials to impart the world, stating “it is time to move out of silos into synergies”. He said the hospital is the largest healthcare facility in the Oti region and therefore has the potential to become a Centre of Excellence after being able to meet Safe Care Level Four [4] Status, which is an internationally certified accredited Quality Assessment and Improvement Program, thereby qualifying as one of the only four 4-Star CHAG hospitals in Ghana, explaining that even within the entire African continent, only 2 CHAG hospitals in South Africa have met the Safe Care Level Five [5] Status – 5-Star rating and therefore St Joseph hospital 4-star rating is no mean achievement. Dr Yeboah said St Joseph Hospital has a reason to celebrate this monumental 50 years achievement because of the major role it played during the COVID-19 pandemic. He implored the workers and the current management to give off their optimum best to help the Hospital hit its set targets. Deserving staff of the Hospital including retirees were honored. The Hospital used the occasion to launch an appeal for an Out Patient Department [OPD] Centre project. The celebration was on the Theme “50 Years of Impactful Catholic HealthCare Delivery: Honoring the Past, Celebrating the Present And Envisioning the Future.