MEDICAL STUDENT DONATES TO KUMASI SOUTH HOSPITAL (PAGE 29, OCT 5, 2010)

A GERMANY-based Ghanaian medical student, Ms Evelyn Akua Achiaa, has donated quantities of medical equipment to the Kumasi South Hospital as her contribution to quality healthcare delivery to patients in the Kumasi Metropolis and its environs.
A group of medical students from the University of Regensburg in Germany – Colours for a New Life – with Evelyn as the leader, sourced for the funds to buy the equipment for to the hospital.
This was after Evelyn had briefed them about the plight of the hospital as medical staff struggled with obsolete and inadequate medical equipment in their quest to provide medical care to patients.
According to the donor, the equipment, donated to the blood bank unit of the hospital were also meant to curb maternal and infant mortality rate to enable Ghana to meet her target of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG).
The cost of the equipment which included four ultrasound-fog basic monitors, a 1300- litre capacity blood bank refrigerator, EKG-monitor cables, two nutrition pump system for transfusion, two infusion pumps, and two container sucking machines were estimated at Euro 20, 000.
About two years ago, the mother of Ms Evelyn Akua Achiaa single handedly constructed a maternity block at the Kumasi South Hospital to facilitate healthcare delivery for women and according to the medical officers at the hospital ,the facility has impacted positively on their operations.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic on the rationale behind her gesture, Ms Achiaa, who is a final year medical student at the University of Regensburg, said her attention was drawn to the plight of the hospital when she, together with her mother, visited Ghana and decided to seek medical attention for their ailing grandmother.
“When we entered, we saw that the medical staff were eager to provide the needed healthcare to patients, but they lacked the requisite equipment which would facilitate their operations. This informed me that I have to do something to support the hospital to function well to enable patients to receive the needed medical care, hence, the donation of these equipment as our widow’s mite”, she explained.
She said the refrigerator in particular, which had the capacity to
store as much as 1300 litres of blood would ease the pressure of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in terms of blood storage to enhance blood transfusion to accident victims and women in labour.
The Medical Supervisor of the Kumasi South Hospital, Dr Frank Abebrese, commended Evelyn in particular, and her school mates in general for their gesture.
He said it was the initiatives of Evelyn which caught the attention of her mates in Germany and assured that with the gesture, the medical staff would be adequately motivated to offer their best to enhance quality healthcare delivery at the hospital.
Dr Abebrese reiterated the need for residents in Kumasi to voluntarily donate blood regularly to the blood bank unit of the hospital for them to provide emergency healthcare to patients. That, he said, would ease the pressure on the KATH and enhance quality healthcare delivery.