ST JOSEPH HOSPITAL CALLS FOR SUPPORT (PAGE 59)

THE management of St Joseph Hospital in Koforidua has appealed to the government and other stakeholders to assist the facility to expand in order to provide essential services for its large number of clients.
The Director of the hospital, Rev Bro Johannes B. Torwoe, who made the appeal, stated that the hospital had specialised in orthopaedic and traumatology and could not afford to lose that prestigious position.
Rev Bro Torwoe was speaking at the launch of the hospital’s golden jubilee themed: “We remain your reliable partner in health delivery, today and beyond” at Koforidua on Saturday.
Rev Bro Torwoe said St Joseph Hospital, established 50 years ago to provide humanitarian services to the poor and the needy and had solely depended on foreign donor support in the past.
However, he said, currently most of the hospital’s funding partners had folded up, making the management to run it basically on internally-generated funds.
“In the midst of donor fatigue, which has plagued us for sometime now, we continue to run the hospital with our scarce resources, making it difficult to embark on major projects essential for its effective and efficient running”, Rev Bro Torwoe stated.
He mentioned some of the projects that needed to be undertaken as the training of more orthopaedic surgeons and other health professionals, the construction of more bungalows for doctors, nurses and other health workers, procurement of medical equipment and accessories, among others.
In its drive for excellence in spite of the myriad of problems, the director said, through foreign sponsorship, the management of the hospital was constructing a new Orthopaedic Hospital.
In a speech read on his behalf by Dr Ebenezer Appiah Denkyira, the Director of Human Resource of the Ghana Health Services, the Minister of Health, Major Courage Quashigah (rtd) commended the management and staff of the facility for being persistent in rendering quality services to Ghanaians over the years.
He particularly recalled that when personnel of the various health facilities across the country embarked on a national strike for better conditions of service, those of the St Joseph Hospital stayed at post to provide the needed services to the people, in spite of the challenges facing them.
He pledged the support of the government to provide the necessary assistance to the hospital to enable it to play the role for which it was established.
The Municipal Chief Executive for New Juaben, Nana Adjei Boateng, commended the management and staff of the hospital, noting that its establishment had brought a lot of relief to both Ghanaians and foreigners alike.
He, however, appealed to the staff of the facility to work hard to turn the hospital into a centre for excellence in the future.