Aninwaah Medical Centre to establish nursing school… To arrest shortage of nurses

AFTER SEVENTEEN successful years of operations, as a wholly private health facility at Emena near Kumasi, the Aninwaah Medical Centre, founded in 1991 with the vision of providing quality basic healthcare for its patrons in the catchment area and beyond, is to break new grounds soon.

The first class health centre, which believes in preventive health delivery, intends to shift and focus on curative treatment, hence the intention to expand, by establishing a state-of-the-art Nursing Training School, to arrest the shortage of nurses in the country, and thereby help improve healthcare delivery.

The proprietor, Dr. Osei Tuffuor, told Ashanti File that management was sourcing funding from a local bank, to embark upon the project, for which a benevolent family had donated a 14-building plot of land.

According to a training modality referred to, about 300 nurses, he said, were expected to turn out from there every year.

He said the Centre would also offer scholarships to deserving students, as part of the centre's social responsibility, to help ensure effective healthcare delivery in the rural communities.

The centre is already in contact with the Nursing and Midwifery Council, for guidelines for accreditation to run the school, as soon as structures are in place.

The Hospital Administrator, Mr. Kofi Akohene Mensah, disclosed that the centre currently provided specialist clinical services in Optics and Gynaecology, Fertility, Surgical, physiotherapy and maternity, as well as eye services on Thursdays.

The Centre, which records an average out-patient attendance of 300, and 70 in-patients daily, has an ultra modern theatre, and 500-body capacity mortuary, for executives and ordinary individuals.

He said management was considering expansion by the provision of additional wards, and the construction of more staff bungalows, with 90 per cent of the staff accommodated on the hospital premises.

It has three full time doctors, made up of two general physicians and one gyaenacologist, as well as four part time doctors, comprising one gyaenacologist, one general surgeon and two physicians.

The Aninwaah Medical Centre also undertakes outreach programmes for free medical care, under its public healthcare system for 50 communities, 20 associations and churches, in its catchment area.

Mr. Akohene Mensah disclosed further that the Centre, in conjunction with the Opportunities Industrialization Centre International-Ghana (OICI), supports 200 people living with HIV/AIDS, in a monthly counseling programme, as well as a Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMCT) Centre there, while the government has designated the facility as an Anti-retroviral therapy centre.

The Aninwaah Medical Centre also provides one month plus clinical attachment for students from the Garden City University at Kenyasi, the Mampong Midwifery, Komfo Anokye Nursing Training School, and Premier Nursing Training School in Kumasi.