First Lady Rebecca Akufo-Addo has promised to extend a helping hand to health institutions struggling with the infrastructure needed to save the lives of mothers and babies.
She urged philanthropists, non-governmental organisations, companies and individuals not to get tired or extending a hand to save a life.
Speaking at the fundraising event, which she organized in collaboration with The Multimedia Group to build a maternity ward to ease the plight of mothers who give birth at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH).
“A few weeks ago, Joy News aired a disturbing documentary of the awful conditions at KATH,” a copy of which was handed to her and the Second Lady Samira Bawumia by the maker, Joy News’ Seth Kwame Boateng.
According to her, they were horrified when they watched JOYNEWS’ Special Assignment documentary ‘Next to die’ and promised to contribute to finding a solution to the needless deaths at the.
Seth Kwame Boateng’s documentary highlighted maternal and child deaths as a result of lack of space and logistics at the hospital.
Doctors and other stakeholders have called for the speedy completion of an abandoned 1000-bed capacity maternal block for the hospital.
On the average, about 100 women are dying on delivery beds at the KATH in Kumasi annually, while about four babies die each day, sometimes seven babies lose their lives.
Officials say the situation has reached a crisis level as women in labour are forced to join long queues for their turn to be attended to.
All this will soon be a thing of the past as the First Lady, Rebecca Akufo-Addo, backed by The Multimedia Group Thursday led an army of philanthropists and corporate institutions to drive the campaign to end the many avoidable deaths.
“We saw the need to help not only because we are mothers, but because fate has put us in a position where we cannot fail to act.
“Like Esther in the Bible, we felt that God has put us in our positions for a time like this,” she said.
She said although it has not been easy in coming through, they decided to find a way to build a one-storey building to ease the situation, as “acting now will make a lot of difference.”
The maternity unit will have five maternity beds, three operating rooms, four emergency delivery beds, 20 incubators and 20 phototherapy units.
It will be an insulated building with forced cooling and it will reduce avoidable deaths by 60-80 percent.
According to Mrs Akufo-Addo, research has revealed that a lot more of the country’s health facilities need urgent help.
She said the plan is to finish the KATH project and move on to other facilities.
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