Special Hospital For The Aged Set Up In Kumasi

A medical health center has been set up in Kumasi, the Ashanti regional capital, for the health care needs of the aging and the elderly population in the northern sector of Ghana.

Located in the premises of Metro Health Hospital at Abrepo junction, the center is designated to seek and address all medical, functional, and psychological needs of the elderly, from 60 years and above.

Named Center for Ageing and Elderly Care and first in the Ashanti region, will also focus on an aging programme for 40-59 year-olds to ensure they enter their 60s with a strong health base.

The center was commissioned on Friday, September 4, 2020, by the Apagyahene of Kumasi Traditional Council, Nana Owusu Afriyie IV, with the support from the deputy Ashanti Regional Director of the Ghana Health Services (GHS), Dr. Mrs. Larsen Reindolf.

Other dignitaries included the former Provost of College of Science, KNUST, Prof Mrs. Ibok Oduro, who chaired the occasion, health experts, staff, and clients of Metro Health Services.

The Health Director in charge of the Center for Ageing and Elderly Care, Dr. Nana Mrs. Phyllis Tawiah, in her speech, outlined some health services to be provided by the center to help the aging and the elderly access quality healthcare.

Among the services include home visits, ECG, ultrasound, endoscopy, diabetes, hypertension, stroke, x-ray, mammogram among others.

“This center is the first of its kind in the northern sector and will afford the ageing and elder to access quality healthcare to prevent or minimize challenges associated with old age. The center will also afford training and research on ageing persons in Ghana to help offer the needed health support to the aged,” she said.

She advised the ageing and elderly to desist from ‘self-medication’, a practice she warned has contributed to premature deaths among not only the elderly, but among all ages.

The Apagyahene of Kumasi, Nana Owusu Afriyie IV, commended the management of Metro Health Hospital, headed by Dr. Stephen Tawiah and assisted by the Administrator, Michael Appiah Boateng, for establishing the center aim at improving the health conditions of the elderly persons.

The Deputy Ashanti Regional Director of the Ghana Health Services, Dr. Mrs. Larsen Reindolf, said a lot attention must be given to the aged population, in terms of health, by implementing the national policy of the aged to improve their well-beigns.

She made the promise of GHS partnering the Center for Ageing and Elderly Care, first in the Ashanti region, to assist the aging population in the region to seek the good welfare of them.