LLL BUILDS HOSPITAL FOR CHILDREN IN KUMASI (PAGE 25)

THE Logs and Lumber Limited (LLL), a Kumasi based timber processing company, has inaugurated a hospital to provide efficient and effective health care services to children in the Kumasi metropolis and its environs.
The facility, dubbed 'Asokwa Children's Hospital' which has already started operation, will afford parents at Asokwa in particular and Kumasi and its environs in general the opportunity to access affordable and reliable health care srvices for their children.
The hospital, which has expatriate medical officers, local nurses and , among other medical staff, will initially provide health care to out-patients.
It will in three months time offer 24-hour services to children suffering from all forms of health problems. Apart from offering emergency services the facility will also admit children who should be detained when necessary.
The Administrator of the hospital, Mrs Anita Bell, told the Daily Graphic moments after the hospital started operations that the gesture of the LLL to provide quality health care services to children was part of its corporate responsibility.
She said the hospital was the singular gesture of Mr and Mrs Bitar, the sole proprietor of LLL, who established a foundation some years back to generate adequate resources to establish the facility .
He said the dream of the couple was realised after they completed the refurbishment of an abandoned office block at the parent wood processing factory, and decided to Christen it 'Asokwa Children's Hospital', in line with their desire to recognise where the factory was located in the Kumasi metropolis.
Explaining why the hospital will solely cater for children, Mrs Bell said an expatriate medical researcher from Italy, Dr Enrico Frontini, conducted a research on the most vulnerable age group as far as mortality rate in the Kumasi metropolis and its environs was concerned and came out with a report that children were the most vulnerable.
She said based on the report, the company decided to put up the hospital to take preventive measures that would drastically reduce the mortality rate among children.
She said now that the hospital had started operating, the second phase, comprising an office where parents would be counselled on the right nutrition, sanitation and other preventive measures to promote the health of their children would be put at the disposal of all parents in and around the metropolis.
She gave the assurance that not only reliable and quality health care services would be provided for children, but the hospital would also educate parents effectively on what contributions to make to promote accelerated socio economic development in their catchment area.