MTN Ghana Foundation inaugurates maternity ward for Ejisu Hospital

Accra, Jan. 30, GNA- The MTN Ghana Foundation has inaugurated a newly constructed Maternity Ward for the Ejisu Government Hospital in the Ashanti Region.

The facility includes a labour ward, lying-in ward, doctors' and nurses' resting rooms and unit for antenatal care.

A statement issued in Accra on Tuesday by Mrs Cynthia Lumor, Corporate Services Executive of MTN Ghana said the project aimed at providing a 20-bed maternity block and the supply of furniture and other medical equipment, which would cost GH¢240, 675.88.

She said until the intervention of the Foundation, the hospital, which was built as a community healthcare in 1972 before being upgraded to a district hospital in June 2010 lacked adequate infrastructure to support the increasing population of the Municipality and their growing health care needs.

The maternity ward was burdened with the task of delivering quality service to the people.

'It has a current Midwife/fertility age ratio of 1:7175 and has been faced with the challenge of inadequate resources required to provide much needed maternal care,' she added.

Mrs Lumor indicated that it was in response to this need that the MTN Ghana Foundation stepped in to provide assistance with the expansion of the maternity unit.

She said Management recognised the importance of helping to improve health care delivery, especially maternal health and fully support the realisation of the Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5 by 2015 through the provision of the necessary infrastructure.

Mrs Lumor expressed the hope that the facility would be utilised to enhance the quality of health delivery at Ejisu and its environs and help in the reduction of the maternal mortality rate in the Region and Ghana as a whole.

Nana Afrane Okese IV, Chief of Ejisu, and also the chairperson of the occasion expressed gratitude to MTN for the facility.

Dr Eric Boachie-Agyemang, Deputy Regional Director for Clinical Care, said: 'Healthcare is a commodity patronised by all and therefore requires the support of stakeholders.

The Foundation has impacted many lives throughout the country through the provision of education, health and economic empowerment project.

Other health-related projects undertaken in the Region include equipping the Kotokuom Health Post in the Atwima Mponua District, the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology Hospital, and the construction of a block of wards and theatre for the Fomena Health Centre that will be completed in February.

GNA