Over 12,000 kidney and kidney-related diseases have been recorded in the Upper West Region in the last five years.
This was disclosed by the Upper West Regional Director of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Damien Punguyire at a ceremony to commission a dialysis centre for the Upper West Regional Hospital which was donated by the Asaase Foundation over the weekend (Friday, July 15, 2022).
He said nearly a thousand of those cases required dialysis service which the region did not have until now, and therefore had to always be referred to the teaching hospitals.
He said a patient needs once biweekly or twice weekly dialysis depending on the condition; hence the commissioning of the centre a great step to effective healthcare delivery.
Dr Damien commended the Asaase Foundation for donating a unit of the dialysis machine and also the hospital management for procuring two additional units, making three in all.
He urged the management and staff to put the machines to good use and proper care and maintenance to serve the greater good of the people of the region.
Dr Robert Amesiya, the Medical Director of the Upper West Regional Hospital, observed that the hospital recorded 613 cases of kidney-related conditions in 2020 which astronomically rose to 2,252 in 2021, which he described as alarming.
He said the hospital management has already trained some nurses to be in charge of dialysis operations at the facility while assuring the public that the dialysis centre will commence operations soonest.
The Medical Director said the dialysis machine donated by the Asaase Foundation and the two procured by the hospital will not be enough for the hospital.
He called for the support of the corporate society to secure more machines to fill the 20 capacity centre.
Dr Dominic Akaateba, a physician assistant at the hospital, said there is the need for the hospital to have about four dialysis machines for the start since the dialysis processes involve blood transfusions.
He explained that using only one machine for multiple patients – including normal, hepatitis B or C and HIV patients – poses a health hazard especially to the normal patients who have no other blood conditions.
The President of the Asaase Foundation and lead consultant for Asaase Broadcasting’s international partnerships, Mr Kojo Mensah said the donation was borne out of the need to support the cause of human wellbeing, and as such human health needs.
He took note of the concerns raised by hospital management and promised to lobbying other partners to secure additional machines for the centre.
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