GAEC Hospital Takes Delivery Of X-Ray equipment

By Christabel Addo-GNA
Accra, July 3, GNA - The Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC) Hospital, has received a mobile X-ray equipment, to support its vision to become an excellent, client-centered, holistic health care delivery Centre.

The presentation of the equipment was under the Norwegian partnership programme for Global Academic Cooperation (NORPART) Project on Ghana-Norway Collaboration in Medical Physics and Radiography Education.

It was to help in providing quality and affordable services to all persons within a responsive environment that promoted clinical excellence, client safety and confidentiality, and in this light ensure a one stop shop for clients.

Professor Benjamin Jabez B. Nyarko, the Director-General of the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission, at the handing over ceremony in Accra, said the equipment would be used for both training, research and diagnostic purposes.

The X-ray machine, he explained, would also be used for the training of students from the Graduate School of Nuclear and Allied Sciences (SNAS) of the University of Ghana, and others on internship, as well as for research, where trainees could have hands on training on the use of the radiography equipment.

'In the long term, we envisage to have a world class Centre of medical imaging and radiography here at the GAEC to support medical imaging diagnosis, training, internship and research,' he said.

Prof. Nyarko further explained that the GAEC Hospital served a wide range of clients from Kwabenya and beyond, and 'with this equipment, 'we a poised to expand and improve our services in terms of using medical imaging to aid diagnosis by our Clinicians'.

He said the Commission consider the NORPART Project as very insightful and timely for the consolidation of education and training of medical physicists, radiography and radiation protection in Ghana and Africa.

He assured of the Commission's commitment to working on the collaborative project and to assist in any way practicable for its success, saying 'it is hoped that this partnership would assist to build human resource needed to push the agenda of the sound Diagnostic Radiology, Nuclear Medicine, Radiotherapy and Radiography services in Ghana and Africa'.

The Director-General stated that the partnership would help to provide quality health care delivery and increase the momentum to place medical physics and other allied health services at its frontiers in Ghana, contributing to the socio-economic development thereof.

He urged the Management of the Hospital to maintain the equipment very well and also to grant access to students for training, internship and research.

He also thanked the NORPART Ghana-Norway project Coordinators for their respective roles in making the main activities of the project, such as the Annual Summer School and a student exchange programme a success.

Prof. Pal Erik Goa, the NORPART Project Coordinator for Norway, who handed over the equipment to the Centre, said it was a shared cost between two countries, aimed at improving the quality of health care services.

Dr Anthony Quampah, the Medical Superintendent of the GAEC Hospital, said it was sad that the facility had no such equipment as an X-ray machine, CT scanner and other key competencies, adding that, exploring various avenues to acquire these equipment had proved futile.

He said in view of the setback the hospital was forced to refer such services to nearby facilities, which came with their own inconveniences.

Dr Quampah said he hoped the collaboration would mark the beginning of new things to come, and that, the Commission would be a model to follow as far as Radiography was concerned.